


Let Them Eat Cake

by OpeningMyEyes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bake Off AU, Inspired by The Great British Bake Off, M/M, Marauders, Modern Day, Rating May Change, Strong Language, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpeningMyEyes/pseuds/OpeningMyEyes
Summary: Welcome back to the newest season of The Great British Bake OffRemus is competing in the Great British Bake Off. His only focus are his cakes.(And a certain charming presenter of course)Also known as: the Bake Off AU no one asked for, but I wrote anyway.*Updated regularly*
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 117
Kudos: 193





	1. Episode 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This fic is super self indulgent but I'm pretty excited about it! I hope you like it :)
> 
> You can find me on tumblr here

_Welcome back to the newest season of The Great British Bake Off_

Remus walked into the iconic tent, holding his breath. He had quite literally grown up watching this show - it was a staple in the Lupin household and now here he was, about to be on it.

He wasn’t even sure if it had properly hit him yet.

He made eye contact with one or two of the other bakers, some of whom he had begun to get a little acquainted with, all of them smiling nervously back at him and he swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. This was really happening. He wandered over to the bench he had been assigned, running a hand over the wooden worktop reverently. It was pristine now - all the surfaces were, but Remus knew for a fact that the particular sparkle they boasted would be gone quick enough.

“Welcome bakers!” 

Remus looked up as the two presenters; Sirius Black and James Potter waltzed into the room, followed closely behind by the two judges; Minerva McGonagall and Dumbledore. Remus’ breath hitched in his chest in a cacophony of feelings and somehow all he could think of was ‘does Dumbledore have a first name?' Remus had certainly never heard of one.

“It’s lovely to have you all here for this season’s Great British Bake Off.” James said, picking up from where Sirius had left off. “I’m sure you all must be very nervous to meet your judges, but let me assure you,” He paused to look around the room seriously. “The only person you need to impress here is _me_.”

The room let out a nervous laugh - a quick release of tension and James grinned. “In all seriousness, it is great to have you here. Now, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to our judges.”

McGonagall and Dumbledore both stepped forward, smiling slightly. “Welcome, everybody.” Dumbledore said, looking around the room. “It is with pleasure that I announce that this week is our cake week.”

Remus nodded. They, of course, already knew this, having practiced their showstopper challenge about a million times each (or precisely sixteen and a half in Remus’ case) but this was for the benefit of the viewers. He had to admit, it was really strange looking around the tent he had familiarised himself with long ago and seeing a bunch of cameras and microphones. He had expected them to be there of course, but it was still slightly off putting having someone with a big metal stick follow you around.

“For our first challenge, Dumbledore and I want you to bake twelve individual muffins, with six of one flavour and six of another.”

“Each cake must be identical,” Dumbledore continued, “We’re looking for a lovely even bake with a nice firm inside and of course,” He said looking around teasingly, “No soggy bottoms.”

Remus chuckled along with everyone else in the tent and the two presenters stepped forward once more.

“The time has come Jamie, are you ready?”

“I most certainly am Sirius, but the question is… are our bakers ready?”

Sirius looked right at Remus and grinned. “I suppose we’re about to find out.”

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

Remus set off, measuring his ingredients and pulling out bowls and whisks as the tent broke out into a flurry of movement. He was careful not to let his nerves get the best of him - he would stay calm and take his time, rushing wouldn't help anything. He was vaguely aware of the camera crew moving around the room but he was in his own little bubble for the moment.

“Hey, Remus yeah?”

Remus looked up at the familiar voice and fuck, Sirius Black was talking to him.

“Um yeah, that’s me.” He laughed, trying to pull himself together because there was a camera trained on them and he would be damned if the entire nation saw him make a fool out of himself.

“So, what’re you making today?” Sirius asked, leaning his hip against Remus’ worktop and essentially looking like one of Remus’ many daydreams about the man in that very same leather jacket.

“Enchiladas.” Remus deadpanned and was delighted when Sirius laughed. “I’m making lemon and blueberry and also bacon and maple syrup muffins.”

“Bacon and maple syrup?”

Remus nodded, his face flushing a little. “Yeah, I've been making these ones for years actually. When I was a kid I used to put maple syrup on literally everything so it’s really not surprising that it made an appearance in my baking.”

Sirius grinned at him and began to move away. “I’m excited to try them so.”

Remus smiled, biting his lip before shaking his head and getting back to work. He wasn’t here to chat to Sirius Black. He was here to bake.

Baking had always been one of Remus’ pastimes. It was like his own little form of therapy. Whenever he was stressed - he would bake. Whenever he was really stressed, he would mix everything by hand. All that beating was really cathartic (Also it gave him really strong arms but that's besides the point). He whipped up the batch of lemon and blueberry first - they were a staple in his house and he could make them with his eyes closed. He used his time chopping walnuts to relieve any remaining nerves that lingered after talking to Sirius Black for a mere minute.

“Hey Re.”

Remus whipped around to face Lily, the contestant right behind him. They had met last night - in the ‘Bake Off Bubble’ after everyone had moved in and Remus had known straight away that they would be friends.

“Hey Lily,” Remus glanced at her counter. Well, what he could see of it, the entire surface was covered in a layer of cinnamon and sugar, left behind after she had dusted one set of cakes. “How’s it going?”

Lily leaned forward a bit giggling. “I’m afraid to say this, because I’ll totally jinx myself, but it’s actually going really well so far.”

Remus grinned. “I’ll say it for you instead.”

Lily nodded solemnly. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She paused, grinning, to stop her mixer, running her spatula along the edges of the bowl a few times in quick, practised movements to ensure all the batter was being thoroughly mixed before turning back to Remus. “Have the judges been over to you yet?”

Remus shook his head. “Not yet, just Sirius.”

Lily wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, having chats with Sirius, are you?”

Remus rolled his eyes. Pre-competition bonding, alcohol and a curious redhead did not go well together. Remus hadn’t even been here a full twenty four hours and he had already exposed the fact that he used to have a bit of a crush on one of their presenters.

“Oh hush you, they’re coming around to all of us.”

“Indeed we are, Mr Lupin.” 

Remus whipped around, his face burning to see the two judges standing in front of his bench. “Oh, hello.” 

“Good morning.” Dumbledore said, smiling warmly. Remus pretended he couldn’t hear Lily sniggering in the background. “What will you be presenting today?”

The pair listened, nodding along as Remus told them of his plans, only stumbling over his words once and managing to restrain from toying with the cuffs of his sleeves. He knew the cameras were on him.

“I must say, I’m surprised at the lemon and blueberry choice, some people would say that it’s a little predictable.” McGonagall said, peering at him over the rim of her glasses.

Remus didn’t blush, he had known this comment would come. “That’s true I suppose, but they’re my favourite. I’m a coeliac and this was the very first recipe I got right with gluten free flour so they’ve always had a special place in my heart.”

Dumbledore smiled, meeting his gaze and Remus was startled at how incredibly BLUE his eyes were. “I look forward to trying them.”

Remus glanced back at Lily once, as they left in a ‘please tell me they didn’t overhear our conversation’ but Lily was no help, she just laughed at his pain. Remus just sighed and set back to work. He lined his muffin trays with strips of bacon, making sure they were all nicely covered before pouring in the batter. He popped the trays in the oven, taking a moment to appreciate how well everything here worked - all the doors slid seamlessly, every knife was deathly sharp and every tool was gleaming. Back at home, there was nearly always something broken or in a state of disrepair that would make Remus have to improvise a little bit. He put the lemon and blueberry muffins on a cooling rack and having already made the maple filling he set about making a cup of tea.

“Oh can we have a cup too?” 

Remus looked up to see both James and Sirius at his bench, grinning wickedly at him.

“Yeah, of course.” Remus pulled out two more mugs and dropped a tea bag into each. Strong or weak? He asked as he left his to brew.

“Weak please.” James said while Sirius went for strong. Remus slid James’ mug and milk across the counter while he removed the tea bags from the other two mugs before adding a fair amount of sugar to his own, causing Sirius to raise an eyebrow.

“What?” He defended himself. “I’m on Bake Off, it can’t be a surprise that I like sweet things.”

Sirius’ laugh was like a lovely little reward for saying something even remotely funny and the little fanboy inside Remus perked up at the sound. “Besides, who drinks black tea these days? I thought only dramatic movie characters did that.”

James nodded along as he swung himself up to sit on the bench. Remus raised an eyebrow but said nothing. “That’s what I say! I think he’s too pretentious for his own good really. It’s the same with his coffee - ‘Black for Black’.”

“Wow.” Remus said, smiling into his cup even as Sirius hot James’ shoulder playfully. “That’s dedication if nothing else.”  
Before Sirius could reply, Remus’ timer went off.

“Ooh muffin time!” James sang, hopping down from the counter and out of the way as Remus opened the oven and pulled out the muffins. Not to brag or anything, but he thought they were perfect.

“We’ll leave you to it.” They said, taking their mugs with them and moving out of the way. Remus was a little disappointed, but also glad because he needed to focus and he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to do that if Sirius Black had stayed to watch.

He placed the hot muffins on their own cooling rack and filled a syringe with the maple syrup concoction before injecting a fair amount into each one. It was ridiculously satisfying to watch them swell a little as he filled them, but he had to remember to pull back lest he add too much and throw off the delicate balance.

“Bakers, you have two minutes left.” James called and despite being nearly finished, Remus felt that little spike of panic flow through him. Where had the time gone?

He quickly transferred both sets of muffins onto his plate for presenting them, lining them up in four rows of three, quickly dusting just a faint hint of icing sugar over the top and moving away.

“Bakers, your time is up, please place your cakes at the end of your bench and step away.”

Remus sat down on the stool he pulled out from under the bench and took a deep breath. He made it in time. His cakes looked okay. He could totally do this.

The judges entered the room and started making their way around the tent. Remus smiled at Lily nervously before tucking his hands under his thighs to hide the fact that they were trembling softly. He tried to pay attention to what the judges were saying to the others but really he could only hear his heart pounding in his ears. They moved away from the first contestant and then a few minutes later, from the second and then they were standing right in front of him. This was it - his first chance to prove himself.

“Hello again Mr Lupin.” McGonagall smiled as James and Sirius flanked the judges. There was a tense silence for a few minutes as each judge picked up a cake.

“They’re all identical, which is really nice to see.” Dumbledore said, right before halving a muffin. “Lovely even bake through this.”

McGonagall cut open a bacon and maple syrup and the sweet filling oozing out of the cake. “Look at this,” She said, “Really lovely work there. And I really like how the cake is wrapped in the rasher.”

Remus held a breath as they each took a bite, barely able to breathe.

Dumbledore smiled and relief flooded through Remus’ system. “Some excellent work here today Mr Lupin, well done.”

“Thank you,” Remus stammered, hardly able to talk though the beaming smile that had taken over his face. The judges moved away but James and Sirius lingered a moment longer. 

“Can we try?” Sirius asked, pointing to the cakes. Remus nodded and while James went straight for the bacon and maple, Sirius paused. 

“You said the lemon ones were your favourite, right?”

How did Sirius even know that? He wasn’t even there when Remus had mentioned it to the judges… he must have overheard. Nevertheless, Remus nodded and tried to hide a confused little smile as Sirius plucked a lemon and blueberry.

“Oh my god this is unreal.” James moaned as he started to walk away, clapping Remus’ shoulder. “Well done mate.”

Sirius closed his eyes, smiling as he chewed his. “They’re my favourite too.”

Remus was glad he was sitting down. Having anything in common with his celebrity crush was in itself nearly too much for him to handle, but said celebrity crush liking _his_ baking? Well, not to be repetitive but; Remus was glad he was sitting down.

“That was crazy.”

“I know.”

“Like… _So_ crazy.”

“I _know_.”

Remus and Lily were sitting outside on the lawn, eating their lunch before they had to take on their next challenge and they had both been saying the same thing for a solid two minutes.

“It’s just so crazy!” Lily exclaimed. “We just did our first challenge! And it went _well_!”

“I know!” Remus was still in shock himself. He had given all his cakes to the crew - all the bakers did, bar one for themselves. Remus had eaten his gluten free lemon and blueberry muffin, savouring the fact that the judges liked it and certainly not thinking about how Sirius Black had liked it too.

Nope, definitely not.

“The whole thing has made me a bit calmer about the next challenge, how about you?”

Remus nodded along in agreement as he stabbed another bunch of lettuce with his fork. “Yeah, I mean I’m still a bit nervous, but less so having actually done one.”

“And let’s not forget the fact that you had a bit of face time with Mr Black himself.”

Remus refused to let himself blush. “Oh shove off, I never should have told you that.” He said laughing a little defeatedly, wiping at his flushed face with his hand.

“No, you were definitely right to have told me. Now I can say that he looks at you way more than the others.” She teased, drawing out the ‘way’.

Remus rolled his eyes. “He’s _Sirius Black_. I’m just a book-loving, cardigan wearing, baking nerd from Wales. Until today, he never even knew I existed and whenever this show is over, he’ll soon forget about me.”

“Okay.” Lily said, her tone indicating she in no way believed him but she would let it slide for now. Remus breathed a sigh of relief. He could totally do this.

Remus Lupin could not do this.

His cakes weren’t rising, his cream was melting in the heat and those fucking instructions were useless.

“Ah I recognise the face of someone dealing with their first technical challenge.” Sirius said, appearing at his side.

Remus scrubbed his face tiredly. “Make a Victoria sponge.” He said lifelessly. “Those were their instructions. Nothing more. Like, what?”

Sirius bit his lip. Remus had to avert his eyes, he already had one crisis to deal with right now. “Yeah those two apparently aren’t very big on words.”

Remus just groaned at the attempt at humour. “This isn’t going to work.”

“And you called me dramatic?” Remus peeked out between his fingers to see Sirius leaning on his worktop grinning up at him. “You’ve got this Lupin.”

Remus began to nod slowly. “You think so?”

Sirius scoffed. “Of course!” He stood up straight and began to walk away. “Besides, if everything goes to shit, the worst thing that could happen is you embarrass yourself on national television and get sent home.”

At that, Remus burst out laughing. “That’s certainly an… interesting pep talk.”

Sirius grinned. “That’s me.”

Remus was still smiling a little while later as he assembled his cakes. Yes, the sponges didn’t rise as much as he would have like, but otherwise they were fine. He had managed to salvage the cream by putting it in the fridge for a while and the jam that he made had turned out really nicely. If nothing else, he had that going for him. The two presenters called time and the contestants all placed their cakes on the table at the front of the tent, behind the pictures of their faces. This challenge was a blind judge - McGonagall and Dumbledore didn’t know who had made what until after they released the results.

Remus sat down on a stool, with Lily on one side of him and a bloke named Peter on the other. 

“Good luck.” Peter whispered to him and with that, the judges re-entered the tent.

“Good afternoon bakers!” 

“Afternoon!” Everyone chorused back and Remus had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing at the sudden sensation that he was back in school and the teacher had just come into class.

“Okay, let’s just dive right in shall we?” 

They all waited with baited breath as the judges tried each and every one of their cakes. 

“Now this one is excellent.” Dumbledore said, taking a bite of the cake behind the picture of the pretty girl with bubble-gum pink hair. Remus glanced down the line and saw she was trying to hide a relieved grin. Lily was bouncing her leg incessantly and Remus had to cover her knee with his hand to get her to stop. He knew the cameras had caught the movement and to top it all off, Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. Remus bit his lip but didn’t move his hand - Lily had smiled at him gratefully and they both needed a little human contact right now.

“Now this one is a bit flat - the sponges didn’t rise enough in the oven it would seem.”

Remus flinched and looked up. Yep, they had reached his. The seconds seemed to crawl by as they cut themselves a slice and finally they tried it.

“However it tastes very good, I particularly like the jam - blueberry, that's quite unusual.”

Remus finally let out the breath he was holding. He was going to be just fine.

“Okay Mr Lupin, stand right there, if you would.” 

Remus adjusted himself to stand where the camera woman had pointed to and looked at her. “This okay?”

“That’s perfect Mr Lupin-”

“Just Remus, please.”

“Alright then Remus, I’m Marlene.” She reached over and shook his hand, her green eyes kind and an array of wild blonde curls piled on top of her head.

“So Remus, how are you feeling after today?”

“Um, I feel pretty good?” Remus said, laughing a little at himself when he phrased it like a question. “It’s really hard to tell - especially since this was the first time I’ve done this. It was good though, no matter what it was a great experience and meeting so many like minded people is pretty cool.”

“And what about your placement in the technical challenge? Third place? Not too shabby.”

Remus laughed properly at that. “Yeah, that was really great.”

“And how are you feeling overall?”

Remus tilted his head side to side in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “Alright. I’m excited but also nervous. I think today was the most exhilarating yet stress inducing day of my life.”

Marlene giggled. “Yeah I’m getting that impression. That was great Remus, you’re free to go.”

Remus’ shoulders slumped and he was surprised at himself, he hadn’t realised he had been that tense.

“Please tell me that I didn’t look like a deer in headlights.” He groaned, making Marlene laugh. “Nah, you’re good I promise, no deer here,” She paused, leaning in conspiratorially, “Except the deer that’s James’ screensaver, but shh, you didn’t hear that from me.”

Remus chuckled to himself all the way back to the hotel.

“Round two, here we go.” Lily said, rubbing her hands together eagerly as she and Remus walked into the tent together.

“Okay but, how weird is it that we have to wear the exact same outfit again today?” Remus asked.

“So weird.” Tonks replied, magically appearing at their side. “Usually at home I take off my clothes and fling them somewhere in my room but last night I had to consciously put them away together so I wouldn’t lose anything.”

Lily giggled and Tonks grinned at her. Remus was settling nicely into the sense of camaraderie that was forming in the tent. Being in a ‘Bake Off Bubble’ changed the dynamic to other years (not that Remus really knew what other years were like) but essentially living with the others was allowing for a nice bond to form between them all.

They chatted a little as everyone filed in and James and Sirius wandered over to them.

“Hey guys!” Tonks chirped and the two lads grinned. 

“Ready for another day?” James asked, the question posed to the group, but his eyes were on Lily. Her cheeks flushed a little and Remus made a mental note to tease her about that later.

“As ready as we can be I suppose.” She said, fiddling with equipment that did not need organising. Remus met Sirius’ eyes and they both grinned and for a moment, just for a split second it felt like they knew each other, like they were friends and had jokes and shared secret knowing looks.

“Okay guys, let’s get going.” A producer called and it snapped Remus out of his thoughts. He and Tonks went to their own benches and Sirius and James walked to the front of the tent to stand next to the judges.

“Today, my lovely little bakers,” Sirius began dramatically, “We want you to bake a cake.”

“I think that’s a given, considering it’s cake week.” James chimed in and Sirius shushed him.

“Hush, let me finish. As I was saying before I was so _rudely interrupted_ ,” He said, glancing pointedly at James to the amusement of the rest of the tent, “Today we want you to bake a cake. But not just any cake,” He said grandly. “We want a cake with several tiers and three different flavours. Your cake can be decorated any way you like, however it has to represent something important to you.”

Remus wasn’t surprised. None of the bakers were - they were told about this challenge in advance so that they had time to prepare and practise. The challenge was being announced simply for the benefit of the audience. 

“Ready?”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus cracked his knuckles and set to work.

“Does three different types of chocolate count as three separate flavours?” Sirius asked him, standing on his tip-toes to peer over Remus’ shoulders.

“I sure as fucking well hope so, cause it’s too bloody late for me otherwise.” Remus mumbled, concentrating too hard to even register what Sirius was saying properly.

“Language Re, now we can’t use this footage.” He laughed, scuffing Remus’ shoe with his foot.

“Oh no, the nation won’t get to see a few more seconds of me stressed off my head, what a fucking pity.”

Remus didn't look up but he could practically _hear_ Sirius’ eyebrows raising. 

“Mr Lupin, what would the queen think of such appalling language?” He asked, pressing a hand over his heart. Remus did glance up this time, to shoot the presenter a dry smile.

“I’ll be sure to ask her, if I ever meet her.”

Sirius’s eyes lit up at the banter, and one part of Remus wanted to say ‘fuck this competition, just spend all your time here chatting to Sirius bloody Black’, but that part of him was very small and the urge to win was very very large, so instead, he let Sirius wander along to the other contestants and he set back to work.

His white chocolate and milk chocolate sponges were still in the oven, but Remus had taken out his dark chocolate layer. He set to work, cooling it and carefully cutting it in half, repeating the process with his other two cakes. Next, he carefully stacked all of the pieces on top of one another, spreading a thin layer of salted caramel icing in between each layer, leaving him with six tiers total. He took a moment to step back and roll out his shoulders quickly before continuing to give his muscles a quick break.

“All good Remus?” James asked and Remus smiled weakly. “Yeah, all good.”

He had his cakes stacked on the stand he would be presenting them on, and set to work carefully cutting off sections of the cake until he was left with a lovely sphere shape. Satisfied, he grabbed the bowl of icing he hand made, the salted caramel a pale yellow and Remus added just the tiniest hint of food dye so it had the faintest grey tint before spreading it liberally all over the cake.

“So Remus, might I ask what you’re making today?” Marlene asked, appearing by his side, camera braced on his shoulder.

“Um it’s supposed to be the moon actually.”

“Oh hey, I can kind of see that.”

“What? Only kind of? I’ve completely finished!”

A panicked look overtook Marlene’s features and Remus burst out laughing. “I’m only messing with you. I’m not done yet. I’m going to get to work doing all the craters and stuff now.”

Marlene looked at him, her face completely blank. “I feel like I should inform you that if it wouldn’t get me fired I’d totally kill you for giving me that heart attack.”

Remus stuck out his tongue playfully. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now leave me alone, I need to get back to work.”

“Yeah, you tell her Re!” Sirius enthused as he walked past, not even pausing in his path over to James and only having heard the tail end of the conversation. Marlene just rolled her eyes and followed him.

For the first challenge ,the judges had come around to their benches. All of the cakes had been presented at once during the second. The third, Remus decided, was most certainly the worst, because you had to carry your cake all the way up to the judges and present it to them.

Remus really fucking hoped he didn’t trip.

“I must say, the detailing on this is quite nice.” McGonagall said, picking up a rather large knife and Remus smiled weakly. “Thank you.”

She cut right down the centre and Remus almost winced because he had worked _so hard_ on that but these are the troubles when your artwork is edible.

Dumbledore looked at him curiously. “Are these just different flavours of chocolate.”

Remus pursed his lips. He had no idea if they hated it or not. “Yeah it is… I really like chocolate.” He added lamely and flushed a little at the chuckles that elicited from around the tent.

“Well Mr Lupin, I must say I’m rather impressed.” McGonagall said after trying it and Remus honestly thought he was going to cry with relief. One thing was for sure - the endorphin levels that being on this show elicited were on a whole other level.

He walked back to his bench, half in a daze, smiling at Lily who passed him on his way, her arms full with a cake decorated with the most realistic iced lilies he had ever seen.

“Remus? Are you ready for your interview?”

Remus looked up from the cup of tea he was nursing. “Yeah. Outside again?”

Marlene nodded and he followed her out, taking a deep breath of the clean country air.

Marlene signalled to indicate the camera was rolling. “So, you survived?” She said, her tone teasing. 

Remus smiled. “I survived.” He confirmed. “I’m so, so delighted for Lily, she really deserved to get star baker.”

“So you weren’t disappointed?”

Remus laughed at the almost ludicrous question. “I’m still surprised that I made it here in the first place! I wasn't expecting star baker, I wasn't even aiming for it today, I just wanted to make it through the week.”

“And you did.”

“That I did.” Remus repeated, smiling warmly. Some guy, Caradoc, was going home. Remus had only spoken to him once so he couldn’t say he was all that torn up about it.

“This question is for a bit of voice over for the episode, alright?”

Remus nodded.

“Your cake was a moon, can you explain the significance of that?”

Remus sheepishly rubbed his hand over his face. “It seems kind of dumb now that I say it but, I used to be obsessed with the moon. Still am really, if I’m being perfectly honest. It got to the point where I now have the nickname of ‘Moony’.” He paused smiling as Marlene laughed. “But it just always made me calm. My mom and I used to drive to the beach in the evening just to watch the sun go down and the moon come up. It was great.”

Marlene smiled. “Perfect, that’s enough, thanks Remus.” She hit a button to stop the recording and Remus began to move away.

“So you’ve reason to stay another week anyways?” Marlene asked.

“Yeah.” Remus said, surprised to find his voice soft. He turned slightly and his eyes landed on Sirius walking out of the tent, pulling his hair out of the top-knot it had been styled in for the last two days. “Yeah, I think I do.”


	2. Episode 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Chapter two - enjoy!

_This week on The Great British Bake Off_

_“Oh Lord I’ve just gone and dropped my dough. Repeat, I’ve just dropped my dough”_

_“I forgot to turn my oven on.”_

_“I’m going home for sure.”_

Remus woke up to his phone ringing.

“Remus!” His mom half-yelled down the line, “You came third in the technical!”

Remus rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Mam, I already told you that, I rang you right after it happened.”

“I know, I know,” Hope said, “But the first episode only came out last night so I’m all excited about it again. Christ Re it’s so strange seeing you on the telly.”

Remus let out an amused huff and flopped back down onto the plush hotel pillows. “Thanks?”

“I’m so proud of you sweetheart… What have you got on today?”

“We’re filming again today, so the first two challenges.”

“Oh, what’s the theme this week?” Hope needled and Remus rolled his eyes fondly. “Man, you know I can’t tell you that yet.”

“I’m your mother. I think if you told anyone, it should be me.”

“Well if I were telling anyone, I would tell you, _however_ …”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re not telling anyone.” She said a little disappointed. “It was worth a shot.” She let out a melancholic sigh, “My only child, too big a star now, doesn’t even have time to talk to his own mother.”

“I’m currently talking to my own mother so I think that contradicts your point a little.” Remus chimed in. “Also, I hardly think being on one episode of Bake Off counts as a star.”

“Well it’s all anyone here at home has been talking about for at least a month.”

“Wow, they really need to get a life.” He said dryly and chuckled when his mother began to admonish him. “Oh mam, I’ve got to go, I’m almost late for filming, I’ll call you later.”

“That sounds like a cop out if I’ve ever heard one Remus Lupin, but I’ll let you go anyways. Good luck today, I love you.”

“Love you too mam. Talk soon, bye bye.” He pressed the end call button and lay with his phone on his chest for a moment before actually checking the time. He had about an hour before he was expected on set. He rolled out of bed with a groan and headed into the shower.

Remus quite literally ran into Sirius.

“Oh shit sorry!” He cried as they collided. Sirius caught Remus’ wrist to steady himself and held on for a split second before letting go.

“In a hurry Lupin?” 

Remus flushed a little, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah I was supposed to meet Lily at the door five minutes ago but I got caught up.”

Sirius just maintained eye contact for a moment before reaching out and touching the sleeve of Remus’ cream knit sweater. “This is nice.”

Remus lost his words. “Oh um, thank you. I made it actually.”

Sirius quirked a smile. “A baker _and_ a knitter? You’re a real home-boy.”

Remus laughed a little. “Yeah you could definitely say that. I knit when I’m watching TV or whatever, I hate when I don’t have something to do with my hands. ‘Idle hands’ and all that."

"I bet you are good with those hands." Sirius smirked and Remus tried not to blush.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Remus said, shrugging him off despite the fact that he was possibly about to lose his mind. _Sirius Black_ was teasing him.

“Anyways, I should probably go.” He said, ducking his head. “Lily’s waiting for me.”

“And we’ve got a show to get to.” Sirius added.

“Yeah,” Remus smiled. “Yeah we do.”

“Hello and welcome back everyone, to this week’s episode of The Great British Bake Off.” James said grandly as soon as Marlene had signalled that she was recording. “This week, it’s bread week.”

Remus sighed. He fucking loved bread. He was coeliac, so he didn't eat bread but… he fucking loved bread.

“For our first challenge,” Sirius announced, “Our judges would like to see two plaited loaves. Any flavouring is up to you, but each loaf should be twelve inches in length with clear, defined plaits.”

The bakers all nodded and the camera panned around the room to catch everyone’s reactions. 

“Alright then, Sirius, dough you want to tell them to begin?”

Remus bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. That pun was so cringe-worthy but Remus was a sucker for bad jokes. 

“Why yes James, I most certainly dough. Three, two one… Bake!”

Marlene started her rounds today by coming straight to Remus.

“So Remus, what’re you making today?” James asked, appearing by his side. 

“Well the first one, is going to have basil and some tomato sauce and then have some mozzarella plaited in.” Remus said as he took out a glass bowl and began adding ingredients to it. “Then the second one is going to have four different kinds of cheese in it.”

“So basically, no one who’s lactose intolerant can go anywhere near your bread.”

Remus laughed and scratched his cheek. “Pretty much. But I mean, neither of them will be gluten free, so I can’t eat them either.”

James grinned. “I suppose I’ll just have to be your official taste tester then.”

“You know, those already exist. They’re called judges.” Remus chirped and Sirius who was passing laughed, shooting Remus an appreciative look.

James moved on to Lily and Remus could hear her telling him about her toffee bread. Remus had seen her practicing it - it always looked amazing and the other contestants had raved about it. Remus had gotten the recipe from her and he was going to try to make a gluten-free version when all of this was over.

Remus covered the bowls with a layer of cellophane and put them in the proving drawer, waiting until they had at least doubled in size before he would take them out again.

In the meantime, Remus got busy finely chopping fresh basil, making a tomato sauce and slicing mozzarella.

“Looking good, Lupin.” Sirius said, jumping up to sit on the end of Remus’ bench, away from the food.

“Why thank you.” Remus said then had to slap Sirius’s hand away when he tried to steal a slice of cheese. “Oi, get away you cheeky bugger.”

Sirius shrugged,” I’m just trying to relieve James of his official taste tester duties.”

“You’re trying to relieve yourself from your stomach grumbling is more like.” Remus shot back, but he held out a chopping board with his many different cheeses all neatly sliced and grinned. “Go on then, you can have one.”

Sirius’s eyes glimmered. “You know, I quite like you Lupin.” He said, before hopping off the table and wandering away.

“It’s a good thing I quite like cheese Mr Lupin.” Dumbledore said in an almost teasing tone as they reached Remus’ bench to judge. They cut the first loaf and each had a taste.

“I think I would have liked it to have stayed in the oven for a little longer.” McGonagall said, “It’s just missing the really crusty outside we were looking for. But the flavours are wonderful, I quite like the concept.”

“And I, as the official taste tester, I think it’s amazing.” James said, stealing a slice and there were a couple of giggles around the tent. Even Remus cracked a smile.

“Let’s move on to the next one, shall we?” Remus just nodded, his jaw clenched as he listened. This time, the knife made a much more satisfying sound as it cut through the bread. Remus couldn’t help but sigh a little in relief, his eyes trained on the loaf to see if the bake was even.

“Now, this one is much better.” Dumbledore said before he took a bite. His eyes fluttered closed as he chewed and Remus pursed his lips together to stop himself from smiling. “Very enjoyable Mr Lupin, I can’t find a fault with this one.”

McGonagall nodded in agreement and with that they moved over to Lily’s bench. Remus sat down on his stool with a sigh, his shoulders slumping.

“Hey, good job.” Sirius whispered as he passed and Remus smiled. Yeah, he quite liked bread.

“Ah look at little Remus, eating his salad.” Tonks teased, ruffling his hair as she plopped down on the chair next to him. Remus scowled. “Believe me, if I could be eating bread like the rest of you lot, I would be.”

“Alas, alack!” A guy Peter, another contestant proclaimed. “We get to eat your bread though. It’s so good mate, much better than that sad lump I presented.”

Everyone around the table started sniggering. Peter had had a bit of an accident resulting in burned bread. It was edible, but it really hadn’t looked like much.

“I’m really going to have to up my game in the next two challenges.” He moaned. “I really don’t want to go home yet.” They all nodded in agreement and the table went quiet for a moment as everyone thought while they munched.

“What a rowdy bunch you lot are.” Sirius said, he and James each pulling up a chair. ”Can we…?” He asked, pointing to the selection of breads, all sliced in the middle of the table.

“Yeah of course,” Remus said. “They’re there to eat.”

Remus certainly didn’t notice that Sirius immediately went for one of the loaves he made. Nope. Not at all.

“So how are we all feeling about the next challenge?” James asked, tearing parts off his hunk of bread and popping them into his mouth.

“Oh my god, new rule.” Tonks declared. “No competition talk when we’re on our breaks. I _need_ to talk about something other than the ratio of sugar to flour.”

Sirius chuckled at her abruptness. “Fair enough. Let’s see… What are your favourite colours?”

“Basic question.” Tonks countered, leaning back in her chair, “But I’ll take it. Mine is pink.”

“Really? I never would have guessed.” Remus said dryly, gesturing to her hair. Lily choked on her food.

“What’s yours then Remus?” Tonks challenged. 

Remus shrugged. “I don’t have a favourite, I like them all.”

“Even brown?” Peter piped in. 

“Especially brown. It’s the colour of chocolate. It’s also like the most hated colour, it needs some appreciation.”

“It’s one of the most hated colours because it’s boring. Like is there any colour more dull than brown?” James asked.

“Beige.” Lily said and James pointed a finger at her, indicating that she had made a valid point. “Okay, that’s very fair. Beige is boring as fuck.”

“I can’t believe this is a conversation we’re having.” Sirius mused and Remus looked at him incredulously. “You’re the one who started it!”

“I asked for favourite colours, not the opposite. It was you who set us on this dull - coloured path.” Sirius counted, his eyes playful. Tonks looked between the two of them for a moment before checking her watch.

“I hate to be the one to break up the band but, it’s time for us to get back to it.”

“Ah, the woes of the working life.” Sirius lamented and Remus snorted. 

“Oh hush, you have like, the best job ever.”

Sirius threw his arm around James’ shoulders. “That’s very true. Come on then Jamie, let’s get back to it.”

“Our next challenge, is of course our technical.” James announced as the cameras began rolling. “This week, our judges have asked you to make bagels.”

“You should have five identical bagels at the end. Your instructions are on your bench.”

“Ready?”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus lifted the cloth that was covering the ingredients and recipe McGonagall and Dumbldore had written for them. He both loved and hated the technical, possibly for the same reasons. The steps were vague and needed a lot of thought which was pretty annoying but it challenged him and pushed him to see what kind of baker he was. 

“You ever made these?” Lily asked and Remus shook his head. “No, never. You?”

“Nope.” She said, popping the ‘p’. “This should be interesting.”

Remus chuckled as he began reading the instructions. _Make a dough_ , it read.

“Don’t you love how specific these instructions are?” Remus said to Tonks sarcastically and some of her hair fell out of her comically short ponytail as she laughed.

“This dough is meant to be stretchy I think.” Lily commented and Remus nodded his head. “Yeah, I’ve heard that too.”

Remus set to work, covering his dough in cellophane once more and popping it into the proving drawer. 

“You know I could really get used to this proving business,” he commented, “It gives me the chance to make a cup of tea.”

“Glad to see you have your priorities.” Sirius joked as he appeared. “Any chance I can have one too?” Remus just nodded to the bench in response, where he had already taken out a mug for Sirius. 

Sirius finished making the tea as Remus took out a pot, filled it with water and put it on the hob to boil. Just then a panicked wail sounded through the tent. 

“Oh lord, I’ve just gone and dropped my dough." Peter cried, "Repeat, I dropped my dough.”

James was immediately at his side to help him figure it out. They chatted intensely for a minute, the cameras circling like vultures as Peter forlornly tossed the ruined dough in the bin, but began to make a new one. Remus let out a shaking breath on his friends behalf, Peter would really be racing against the clock. 

“It’s make it or break it time.” Remus said, turning back to his own work, deciding to focus on that for now. His thoughts wouldn’t help Peter and all Remus could do right now was work on his own project. Having divided his dough and rolled it into shape, he boiled them one by one, praying he was doing the right thing. “And now you fuckers are going in the oven.”

“Oh my god Remus.” Marlene said. “We had great footage of you there and you totally just ruined it.”

“Sorry sorry, I’ll do it again.” Remus smirked and slid the tray into the oven. “And now you little shits are going in the oven.”

Marlene just turned around and left as Sirius’ laugh filled the tent. 

Remus walked up to the table to present his baking to be judged. As per the rules, he placed the plate down behind his picture and sat in one of the stools lined up, facing the table. McGonagall and Dumbledore arrived, looking much to chipper for Remus liking, not when he was struggling not to start biting his nails. He chose instead to pick at the hem of his jumper until Lily took his hand in hers. He was grateful - he really liked this jumper.

Peter was disappointed but not at all surprised when his bagels hadn’t risen enough. How could they have when making a second batch had essentially cut out the proving process. Tonks’ were a bit too small. Lily’s were a bit too chewy. Remus bit his lip to stop himself from beaming when his were the best of the bunch. Still not perfect, not by a long shot, but he had won the technical challenge and his relief sent him out of the tent, unable to lessen the grin on his face as Marlene questioned him.

“How are you feeling, after today?”

“I’m feeling pretty good! I got off to a bit of a rocky start today, but I think I recovered well so I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into the challenge tomorrow.”

Marlene gave him a thumbs up and wandered away to find some of the others.

“Well done Mr Technical Challenge!” Lily cried, slinging her arm around his waist as they began to walk back to the hotel. 

“Why thank you, Ms Star Baker.”

“We make quite the pair.” Lily observed.

“That, my dear Lily, we most certainly do.”

Remus woke up in Lily’s room.

“Ugh, that alarm is so loud.” Remus groaned and ignored Lily giggling at him.

“I can’t believe how much you’re not a morning person, you seem like you’re hungover or something.”

“I am hungover as a result of life, Lily.” He muttered. “Existing is exhausting.”

“By god, you really are dramatic in the morning.” She gathered up a towel and some toiletries. “I’m going for a shower and to get ready. Meet you for breakfast in twenty?”

Remus nodded in agreement, shoved on his shoes and started gathering the one or two belongings he had. He hadn’t meant to sleep in Lily’s room, but they had stayed up so late talking the pair had just drifted off. It had been the best night Remus had spent her so far - he and Lily curled up under a pile of blankets, each nursing a mug of hot chocolate as they gossiped like school girls.

Remus stepped out the door and very closely avoided a collision with Sirius.

“I’m getting a freaky sense of deja vu right now.” Remus said, grinning.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “This… isn’t your room.”

Remus shook his head as they began walking down the corridor. “Nah, it’s Lily’s, I’m heading back to mine now.”

“You and… Lily?”

Remus choked as he realized what Sirius was thinking. “ _No_ , no, God no. I mean, Lily’s fantastic but no. We’re just friends, we fell asleep talking.”

Sirius’ shoulders almost seemed to visibly lighten. “Oh right, yeah.”

Remus grinned and nudged Sirius’ shoulder with his own playfully. “Lily’s not really my type.”

“Oh yeah? What is your type then?”

“Oh you know… not women.”

Sirius smirked and looked at Remus sideways. “Now that, sounds like something I quite relate to.”

Remus slowed to a stop as they reached his door. “I suppose I’ll see you in the tent?”

“That seems pretty unavoidable, doesn’t it?” Sirius threw him a cheeky wink and turned on his heel, continuing down the hall. Remus would be lying if he said he didn’t watch him walk away.

“Welcome back for our showstopper challenge!” Sirius said, smiling at all the contestants.  
“This will be your second showstopper, so get ready.”

“That’s right,” James continued, “This week's challenge will be to bake pull apart rolls.”

“Jamie, are you sure you have the right challenge? That doesn’t sound very showstopper like.”

“Why thank you Sirius, you’d be right. I did forget to mention that your rolls should make the shape of your favourite animal.”

Remus rolled his eyes at the obviously pre prepared banter and yet he found himself smiling anyways. 

“Ready.”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus immediately set to work, knowing exactly what he wanted to do and how to do it, however he had been cutting it quite close on time every time he had practised, so he wanted to work as quickly as possible to allow for all and any mishaps that tended to happen under pressure. 

He made, proved and rolled out his dough in record time and was now assembling the little rolls into the shape he wanted. He was shading the top with poppy and sesame seeds and stepped back for a moment to admire his handy work. He was in no way close to an artist, except for when it came to baking. If his canvas was starch and glucose, he might as well be Michelangelo. 

He made one or two more adjustments before putting it in the oven for thirty minutes. That still gave him twenty minutes to spare, making this the fastest he had ever completed his challenge. Maybe the pressure had its benefits after all

“Oh fuck.” He heard Lily say from behind him. 

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh _fuck_.” She cried, her time getting more and more panicked. 

“Lily?” Remus asked, whirling around in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to turn the oven on.” She whispered, her face pale. 

“You… What?”

“I forgot to turn the oven on! Remus I’m screwed this won't heat up for at least ten minutes and I have fifty minutes of work left at least!

Remus wasn’t sure what overcame him in that moment, maybe some panicked curled hormones but suddenly he was in full disaster mode. 

“Okay,” he muttered, opening his own oven and adding another wire rack. “Okay Lily, put yours in here with mine while your oven heats up. It’s not ideal, I know but it’ll get you started.”

“Remus Lupin.” Lily declared as she collected her tray and walked around her own bench to reach him. “You are my literal hero.”

She lifted herself up on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek swiftly before putting her doe - shaped dough in the oven and racing back to her own workspace to turn hers on. 

Remus let out a shaky breath as he sat down for a moment. It was such a simple mistake that could happen to any of them. Remus vowed to himself to be extra vigilant from now on and to never assume he did anything on muscle memory. Here everything was strange and new and it could quite throw off your routine, especially if you’re used to working consistently in one particular venue. 

“That, Mr Lupin, was quite the save.” Sirius commented, swooping in like he always did. Remus smiled weakly and ran his fingers through his hair. Just then Lily appeared again and took her bread out of the oven. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She cried as she dashed back to work, putting her bread in her own oven with a deafening clang. 

“Thirty five minutes left!” Sirius called and Remus stood up cracking his knuckles. He could chat to Sirius later, right now? He still had a little work to do. He grabbed the little bit of extra dough he had set aside in the fridge and set to work. 

“Mr Lupin, if you would please bring your challenge up to the table.” McGonagall called and even in his mild panic, Remus could still take a moment to appreciate the lovely lilt in her words. 

He set his baking down on the table and stepped back to look at his work - a wolf, howling at a full moon.

“The moon detailing is quite clever Mr Lupin.” Dumbledore said and Remus sighed in relief. It had been the little bit of dough he had set aside - put in the oven later to account for it’s smaller size.

“It certainly looks excellent, but the question stands; how does it taste.

“Remus winced as they pulled apart his, frankly, _perfect_ design and each took a bite. Dumbledore gave him a broad smile and Remus bit his lip, grinning.

“I think you’ll find we’re very pleased Mr Lupin. These truly are very good.”

Remus could actually pay attention to the rest of the assessments after that thrilling review. He watched Peter present his rat bread (side note - what in the world had possessed him to make food in the shape of a rat?), Lily displayed her doe which had turned out very well in the end and some guy even made an alpaca. Remus didn’t know that dude too well yet, but he thought his name was Benji.

They all sat once more on the stools lined up at the front of the tent while the judges made their decisions. James and Sirius regaled them all with stories from their childhood while they waited,

“And then what do you know?” James cried, his hands flying everywhere as he told the story. “I look up, and there's Sirius, hanging out the second floor window with his trousers down around his ankles.”

The entire room burst out laughing, Remus was pretty sure there were tears streaming down his face.

“But what made you think that would be a good idea?” Remus wheezed, still unable to breathe properly for all his laughing, but desperate to get a look into teenage Sirius’ state of mind.

Sirius just shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” He admitted sheepishly and that set everyone off into another round of deafening laughter, when the judges walked in and they all sobered quite quickly.

James and Sirius conferred with them quietly in the corner a moment before walking back over to the contestants.

“Today, I have the absolute pleasure of announcing our star baker.” Sirius said, looking around the room with a small smile. “Our star baker this week is…” Sirius scanned the crowd for a moment before his eyes landed on Remus. “Remus.”

Remus didn’t even move. He wasn’t even sure he could if he had wanted to. He had won star baker.

“Which leaves me with the awful job of announcing who’s leaving us today.” James said in a flat tone but Remus didn’t even hear or register that some guy Fabien was leaving. He was just another baker Remus didn't even know that well. But he was star baker. Lily pulled him into a hug and held him tight. The room around him was filled with pats on the back and congratulations and Sirius looked him right in the eye and mouthed _well done_.

Remus was pretty sure he wanted to live in this moment forever.

“Remus, would you be alright calling your family on camera? We’d just like to capture their reaction.”

Remus nodded and rang his mom. She answered on the first ring. “Hi, Ma?” Guess what?”

“What is it love, how did your day go?”

“I won star baker.”

Marlene giggled behind the camera as Hope let out a series of delighted yells. Remus laughed along with her for a moment. “Okay mam, I’ve got to go finish my interview, but I’ll call you later, okay?”

He said his goodbyes, hung up the phone and turned back to the camera. “So Remus, what were you thinking throughout the challenges?”

“Well after the first one, I kept thinking _I'm going home for sure_. But obviously I recovered a bit.”

“A bit? Marlene chuckled. “From going home to star baker. I’d say you recovered quite a lot.”

Remus chatted with Marlene for a few more minutes before she sent him away, claiming she had taken up enough of his time. Just as he was beginning to leave, Sirius sidled up to him.

“Well, if it isn’t the brightest star.” Remus teased.

“I think today,” Sirius countered, “That would be you.”

Remus blushed and looked down at his feet. “Want to walk back to the hotel?”

Sirius smiled. “That sounds like a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Tell me what you think! And don't forget to come say hi on [https://www.tumblr.com/blog/onlydreamofmysoul](%E2%80%9Ctumblr%E2%80%9D)


	3. Episode 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnndddddd we're back!

_This episode on The Great British Bake Off, it’s pastry week._

_I’m not going to jinx it._

_Oh my god, I am so sorry!_

_As usual… this is as good as it’s going to get._

“Have you been practicing?” Lily teased, bumping her hip against Remus’.

“Lily, we literally practice together. You’ve been eating my pastries _all week_.”

Lily pouted. “I mean, I know you’re right but also I’m literally with you all the time and I’m running out of conversation starters.”

Remus felt a laugh overtake him as he slung his arm over her shoulders. “Okay that’s fair, I’ll give you that much.”

“Especially since you declared some topics off-limit.” Lily grumbled. Remus sighed as he looked up at the clear blue sky. It was one of those cold crisp mornings where the grass is glittering with frost but not a single cloud decorated the sky. 

“Fine, I remove my ban.”

Lily actually squealed as they entered the tent, drawing more than one look from the other contestants. 

“Oh my god, keep it down or I’ll revoke it.”

Lily’s eyes widened as she comically mimed zipping her lips shut. Remus swung himself up on her worktop, and she swatted his knee but he didn’t move.

“So,” She prompted, her voice low. “You and Sirius?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Lils, I already told you, there is no ‘me and Sirius’.”

Lily shook her head. “That’s not true!” 

Remus made a betrayed noise at the volume of her voice and she immediately hushed herself. 

“Sorry!” She whispered. “But Re, I’m right. I mean, there wasn’t a you and Sirius at first but now… there’s definitely potential.”

“What’s there potential for?”

Remus’s heart shot right out of his chest and his stomach plummeted as Sirius hopped right up onto the counter next to him. Lily had visibly paled as the pair of them searched for an excuse.

“For… for the technical challenge to be easier this week.” Remus said, praying it would seem like a normal topic of conversation. Fortunately for him, being in a baking competition did tend to allow for the contestants to talk about it… a lot.

Sirius just nodded, seeming to go with the conversation and Lily and Remus shared a look of intense relief. On the outside, Remus was pleasantly chatting to Sirius. On the inside, he was plotting Lily Evans’ death.

“So, are we excited for pastry week?” Sirius asked. 

“I mean, no but I was never gonna be so…” Remus shrugged trailing off. 

“Ignore him, his practice rounds have been so good.” Lily endorsed. “As the person who gets to eat all of them, I’ve been very satisfied.”

“I’ll have to try them then.” Sirius was saying but Remus was watching the judges entering the tent. He hopped off the counter and moved to his own bench, with Sirius’ voice still jabbering in the background.

“Dude, I’m gonna be like ten pounds heavier leaving this show. Like wow, everything tastes so good I just want to eat it all.”

Lily’s laugh was interrupted by someone in the crew calling Sirius.

“Duty calls.” He said, saluting Remus and Lily before dashing off to the front of the tent, holding the attention of everyone in the room in the way that only someone with Sirius’ charisma could manage. James came close, but no one was quite on Sirius’ level. Which was good. Remus could barely handle one Sirius Black, never mind if there were two.

“Okay and we’re rolling in three, two, one.” Marlene called, signalling that the camera had begun.

“Welcome back bakers! It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for!”

“No James, it’s the week _you've_ been waiting for.”

“That’s basically the same thing. It’s pastry week!”

“Today our lovely judges have asked you to prepare a tart or pie made with puff pastry.” Sirius said, gesturing to McGonagall and Dumbledore.

“The fillings are, as usual, yours to interpret, but it should be eight inches in diameter and have a clear design on top.”

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

And once again, they were off. Remus began work at a leisurely pace. He wasn't worried this week. Pastries were something he made quite often, his mother had a particular fondness for them so Remus made sure there were nearly always some in the house. He was making a lemon meringue pie and could probably make it with his eyes closed at this point.

Was it too early in the competition for him to feel this calm? Possibly. Was Remus going to question it? Nope, he would take any break from the nerves that he could get.

“He set about making the pastry first - it needed time to rest in the fridge and Remus wanted to allow as much time for that as possible. He soon settled into the familiar cathartic movements or cubing the butter and sieving flour, wishing he could have his music blasting like he did at home. Baking meant music playing as loud as humanly possible.

He rolled his dough into a ball, wrapped it in cellophane and popped it in the fridge, clicking the button on the kettle as he retired to his station, pulling out a pot and a clean whisking bowl. He made the lemon curd quickly, adding a generous amount of lemon zest to make sure the flavour was there before setting it aside to cool and whipping up some egg whites and sugar to make a meringue mix.

“You look confident.” Lily commented as Remus finished making his cup of tea, his meringue still wishing in the bowl.

“I don’t want to jinx it but… I am?” I feel like pastry week is the one I was born to do.

Lily laughed at his theatrics. “Going for star baker again I see.” But Remus shook his head.

“Nah I’m not __confident… I’m just not worried about going home this week. Does that make sense?”

Lily nodded smiling. Remus stuck out his tongue at her cheekily before turning back to work.

“I’d be careful where you put that tongue Lupin.” Sirius said, appearing besides Remus in the manner in which only Sirius could move, flowing gracefully through a room. Remus tried so hard not to blush. He failed.

(But it was hot in the tent, so that would explain it… right?)

“It seems like a valuable commodity, you being on a baking show and all. Wouldn’t want you to lose your main asset.

Now if Remus were one; not on national television, two; a person who could deliver smooth lines well and three; talking to anyone other than his celebrity crush he might have said something along the lines of “Will you take care of it for me then?”

But Remus was on national television, he wasn’t smooth, this was Sirius Black and to be perfectly honest, that was a really terrible, cringy line that didn't make all that much sense but Remus never claimed to be good at this.

Instead he just continued blushing and laughed nervously, hoping it would cover up his little pause.

“I already have an official taste tester, so I’m sure I’d get along just fine.”

“Did someone say ‘official taste tester’?” James chimed in, appearing on the other side of Remus.

“Okay, no offence but take this as your official eviction notice, there are too many people behind this bench.” Remus said, his tone joking but he also meant the words. He would chat later, now he needed to get back to work.

“Oh how you wound us!” James cried, clutching his chest. Sirius pretended to break down in tears before they both grinned and Remus and promptly went off to bug someone else. Remus shook his head fondly and set back to work. He rolled out his pastry and lined the tin, adding some (frankly, beautiful) crimping detail on the edge and popping it into the oven for fifteen minutes for a blind bake.

“Here we go.” He half sang, dragging out the last word as he pulled the tin out of the oven and ladled in his lemon curd. He piped on the meringue and took out the little blowtorch he had to finish it.

“I have a weapon!” He declared, brandishing it to Lily and Tonks on the bench next to him burst out laughing.

“Who would have thought that the innocent little Lupin would have so much fun with something so dangerous.” She teased.

“Oi!” Remus protested. “Who’s calling me innocent?”

Lily looked at him like he had lost his head. “Have you not been keeping up with Bake Off Twitter?”

“Uh, no? Should I be?”

“Yes!” Lily and Tonks enthused at the same time.

“It’s like, my only source of entertainment at this point.” Peter chimed in and Remus looked around in confusion. 

“Am I the only one who didn’t know about this?”

Lily shrugged. “I guess so.”

Sighing, Remus turned back to his pie. All he wanted to do now was whip out his phone and check out what was being said, but he had a cake to make. Or really, a pie to furnish.

Ever so carefully, Remus turned on the blowtorch and began moving it over the top of his creation, watching the white piping turn a beautiful gold.

“I’m kind of obsessed with the blue flame, I’m not going to lie.” Sirius said, coming up to Remus once again and Remus really wasn’t sure how he was supposed to handle fire and Sirius Black at the same time. This competition sure was testing more than his ability to bake.

“How long do we have left?” He asked instead of replying.

“Two minutes.” Sirius confirmed, just before James announced it to the entire room from the other side of the tent.

Remus nodded, biting his lip in concentration as he tidied up the finishing touches of his presentation, very aware of Sirius’ eyes on him the whole time, and then time was up.

“Okay bakers, set your creations on the end of your bench please.” Sirius said and the judges came into the tent.

“Mr Lupin, we’ll start with you today.” Dumbledore announced pleasantly and Remus smiled, the nerves that had been absent all morning making an appearance.

Dumbledore cut into the pie and Remus couldn’t stop himself from smiling when it looked perfect on the inside.

“The flavours in this are excellent.” McGonagall commented, going for another bite. Remus bit down his grin.

“Thank you.”

“I would have liked to maybe see a little more decoration on top.” Dumbledore said and Remus nodded along. “But otherwise, this was a lovely treat. I do have an affinity for lemon, you know.”

Remus beamed as they moved away. Pastry week was off to a good start.

“Thank god it’s lunch.” Lily groaned, throwing herself into a chair. “I know we have stools in the tent but, it’s just not the same.”

“Preach!” Tonks cried, collapsing down next to her.

Peter shuffled in, a few of the other contestants joining them. Sirius and James filtered over from where they had been chatting to the judges. Remus pulled out his phone so that he could _finally_ look at Twitter.

_“Remus Lupin is such a sweetheart, I would die for him.”_

_“Remus Lupin blushing is my new religion.”_

_“Has anyone else noticed the way Sirius looks at Remus? No? Just me?”_

The last one caused Remus’ apparently infamous blush to appear. He really hoped Sirius hadn’t seen that one. Remus was just kidding himself if he thought Sirius hadn’t. He had been in the media since he was small - both his parents being famous politicians. Sirius was famously separated from the rest of the Black clan, leaving them and making his own life. He had jumped around jobs for a little while, Remus remembered reading once in an interview Sirius had done in some newspaper, before falling in love with presenting. He had been appearing on shows ever since.

“I’m so ready to just go to sleep now.” Peter groaned and Remus nodded in agreement.

“Seconded.” He said, wishing he could just close his eyes for a few moments. Sadly, the show must go on.

“How about we all go get dinner after we finish filming today?” Sirius suggested. Suddenly Remus was wide awake. The end of the day couldn’t come quick enough.

“Today for our technical challenge, our judges would like you to make six identical apple turnovers.” Sirius announced.

“They should have a buttery, flaky pastry with a soft, sweet filling.” James continued. “Everything you need can be found under the cloth on your bench.”

Remus eyed the blue and white checked cloth, keeping it’s secrets hidden.

“Do our judges have anything they say before they go?”

“Make sure you watch out for the colour.” McGonagall said vaguely and with that, they were gone.

“Well that was helpful.” Remus muttered to Lily as they uncovered their ingredients, Lily giggling at him.

“Have you ever made these before?” She asked. 

“Um… Once maybe?” Remus said, scrunching up his nose in thought. “But it was years ago. Have you?”

Lily shook her head. “No. I’m not sure why because I love them, but I’ve never made them.”

Remus nodded and picked up the sheet of ingredients, scanning the instructions quickly.

“They seem… pretty okay?”

“That’s what I was thinking too.” Lily agreed. “Which is making me nervous.”

Remus chuckled and nodded his head. “I suppose we’d better get to it then.”

“I would suppose so.” Lily agreed and that was the most they spoke for another while.

Remus made his dough, set it aside and prepared the apples, the actions new but familiar enough that his brain could tune out a little. His traitorous mind wandered to Sirius, to the tweets talking about the way Sirius looked at him. Remus could almost imagine it, him icing a cake, biting his lip in concentration while Sirius looked on, wishing he could be the one to take his lip between his teeth-

Remus shook himself out of his thoughts. That was crazy. Sirius didn’t look at him that way and he was only teasing himself to let himself fantasise about it.

He filled his pastries carefully, not wanting to over fill them or the dough would split, but if he under-stuffed them, they would just look collapsed and sad. He crimped the edges with a fork and using a knife, carefully cut slits in the dough to let the steam escape. Finally, he brushed the tops with an egg wash and sprinkled sugar over them before placing the tray into the oven.

 _Bake until cooked_ the recipe said and Remus groaned. Would it kill them to be a little more specific.

He turned around and saw Lily make a face at her recipe and smiled, knowing she was thinking the same thing. He crouched down and peeked into his oven, watching the dough cook.

“A watched pot never boils.”” Sirius chirped from above him and Remus looked up.

“Good thing this isn’t a pot then.”

Sirius snorted and hopped onto Remus’ counter. “How’re things going?”

“Pretty okay? So far today everything’s gone right, so I’m trying not to jinx it.”

Sirius laughed. “That’s fair. I won't ask you any more so.”

“I’d appreciate that.” Remus grinned. “So, tonight? Don’t we all have dinner together anyway?”

Sirius shrugged. “At different times though! I mean, I know we have to stay in the hotel to protect our little bake off bubble but I thought maybe we could pretend it was a real night out, get dressed up, all that kind of thing.”

Remus nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

Remus barely dared to breathe as they held eye contact for a moment, but then Sirius coughed and jumped down and Remus looked in on his turnovers, the moment nothing more than a blip on his radar.

(A blip he would think about a lot).

(But it was just a blip).

Remus looked at his pastries. Fuck, they were a little darker than he would have liked. Not burned, but still not the nice golden Remus had wanted. Fucking Sirius with his gorgeous fucking face and his maddening smile and his dumb ideas.

Remus set his pastries out on the plate he would present them on with a sigh. They weren’t bad, really they weren’t. But they could have been perfect.

Fucking Sirius Black.

(But damn if Remus wasn’t enamoured).

Sirius and James called time up and the bakers all made their way to the table at the front of the tent to put their baking behind their pictures for the blind judge. Remus waited patiently at the side for a moment as the people crowded around the table, waiting until there was more room. Finally he stepped up next to Peter and was just putting his plate down when Peter, who was talking to Tonks, waved his hands in a dramatic hand gesture and knocked the plate right out of Remus’ hands.

There was nothing Remus could do. From the moment Peter had made contact, Remus was doomed, unable to catch the plate. He could only watch in horror as his pastries crashed to the floor.

“Oh my god, Remus I am so sorry!” Peter cried in horror, dropping to his knees to Remus’ aid.

“It’s okay Pete.” He said, his throat tight. Just needing a minute to figure out what the fuck to do. Sirius was there in a heartbeat, salvaging two of the turnovers and putting them on a plate.

“Hey, Re, don’t worry, I’ll go talk to the judges now, it’ll be fine, I promise.”

Remus met his eyes and smiled tightly. “Thanks.”

Peter was still apologising profusely so Remus stood up and turned to him. “Pete, it’s fine really. It was an accident.”

They all sat down on their stools and Lily took Remus’ hand in hers. He squeezed it a little trying not to panic. This wasn’t his fault.

James and Sirius arrived just a second before the judges, having explained the situation. McGonagall and Dumbledore went to Remus’ first, still not knowing of course that the disaster turnovers belonged to him.

“I heard there was a bit of an accident.” Dumbledore said, eyeing the plate. “But never mind that, we’ll judge based on this one.

Remus let out a breath of relief as the pastry was cut down the middle and McGonagall and Dumbledore both took a bite.

“Slightly overbaked.” McGonagall commented. “But otherwise, quite good. I like the apple to pastry ratio.”

Dumbledore nodded. “Overall, quite good.”

Remus let out a breath of relief, having experienced the most stress he had encountered so far on the competition. The judges went through the rest of the pastries, and were quite impressed. They had all produced some decent bakes.

Remus came fourth, Lily came second. Peter had come fifth and Tonks won it. The rest of the contestants filed in the other slots.

Peter apologies again as Remus helped tidy his station and gather his things but Remus just smiled tiredly. “Pete, it’s really fine. There’s no harm done.”

Peter smiled gratefully and moved away. Remus walked back to the hotel with Lily, ready to relax.

“Are you wearing a shirt?” Lily yelled from the bathroom.

“Yeah but with skinny jeans. Dress that shit down.”

Lily snorted as she emerged into the bedroom wearing a floaty sort of dress that stopped just above the knee.

“Oh you look great!” Remus enthused as she gave him a little twirl.

“Yeah and you look _hot_. Who would have thought the bookworm could have such scandalous jeans!”

Remus blushed. “They’re not that bad.”

“Remus they’re practically _painted_ on. But it’s great. Sirius will love them.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Yeah as if I was thinking about Sirius when I got dressed.”

(He was thinking about Sirius when he got dressed.”

“You ready to go down?” She asked, holding out her elbow like a gentleman escorting a lady to a dance. Remus chuckled and linked her arm and together they strolled down to the hotel’s restaurant

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Britain's favourite bakers!” James declared as he strolled up to them just inside the restaurant. They both laughed but Remus didn’t miss the pink stain on Lily’s cheeks.

“Grab a seat anywhere.” James said, gesturing to the one long table, already half-filled with contestants and crew alike.

“The host even on your night off!” Lily joked and James grinned. 

“What can I say? I give the people what they want.”

Remus and Lily went to sit down, slotting in by Tonks, Marlene and Peter. Sirius and James joined them a couple of minutes later and the night kicked off. No one was drinking - they were filming the next morning. None of the bakers were risking being anything less than on top of their game and the rest of the crew were up a lot earlier to get the set prepared, but they didn’t need it. The food was good, the conversation was good and the people… well the people were _great _.__

__“So how did you get into presenting?” Lily asked Sirius as they all dung into their main course._ _

__James and Sirius grinned at it. “Well Jamie always knew it was what he wanted to do,” Sirius said, ruffling James’ hair and laughing when James tried to shove him off. “He was insufferable in school, always doing dramatic presentations and the like. I realised one day when I came to pick him up from the set of a show and, I don’t know, I just thought ‘hey I could do this’.”_ _

__Remus smiled at the careful nonchalance Sirius had, it was almost as if he didn’t realise what an icon he’d become in the country._ _

__“How did you all get into baking?”_ _

__Lily blushed, looking down at her plate, Remus burst out laughing, already knowing the story._ _

__“Her sister told her she wouldn’t be able to bake well and Lily had to prove her wrong.” He told them and the table burst out laughing._ _

__“In my defence,” Lily protested, “That was only for that first time! I realised I loved it and that’s why I bake now.”_ _

__“I don’t believe you.” Tonks said as he took a bite of her food, ducking when Lily threw a balled up napkin at her head._ _

__“How about you Remus?” Sirius asked and Remus looked to his left to see those grey eyes trained on him._ _

__“My mom always baked.” He said with a shrug. “I always used to help her. I don’t even remember when I started doing it myself, it was so long ago. I suppose it’s just something I’ve always done.”_ _

__Sirius smiled. “That’s nice.”_ _

__“Well I,” Tonks interjected, “Was forced to start baking in school. I _hated_ it.”_ _

__Remus looked at her incredulously. “What?”_ _

__“Yeah! But then there was this cake I had to make for one of my exams and it was _so good_. And I wanted to eat it one day, so I made it, and I realised I didn’t actually hate baking, I just hated baking in school.”_ _

__“Okay but, does Bake Off not remind you of school?” Peter asked._ _

__“Oh yeah,” Tonks agreed, nodding empathically. “I’m having major flashbacks. I have no idea how I thought this would be a good idea.”_ _

__“Tonks, I say this with love, but you are an idiot.” Remus wheezed, tears building in his eyes from laughing._ _

__The desserts came out and the waitress with ‘Dorcas’ on her name tag joked that she hoped they would be up to standards. Remus didn’t miss the way Marlene’s eyes followed her around the room. He looked up and saw Sirius noticing him notice. Their eyes met and Remus couldn’t fully express what it was, but something passed between them. Remus grinned and lifted a forkful of cake to his mouth, holding eye contact throughout. Sirius bit his lip and grinned._ _

__It was a good night._ _

__

__“Hello again bakers! As you well know, it’s time for our Showstopper challenge!” James said, grinning broadly. “This time, our judges are looking for a savoury twist.”_ _

__“They would like you to prepare twenty four amuse-bouche, made with filo pastry and of course, with a savoury filling of your choice.” Sirius continued_ _

__“Judges, any words of advice?”_ _

__“The trick to filo pastry is to try to stretch it as thin as possible.” Dumbledore said, and with that, the pair of them left the tent._ _

__“Eloquent as ever.” James joked. “Alright, ready?”_ _

__“Set.”_ _

__“Bake!”_ _

__“Here we go again…” Tonks drawled, dragging out the last word. Remus shot her a grin._ _

__“I hope you don’t feel like you’re back in school.” He teased. Tonks threw an onion at him. Things were good._ _

__

__“Are you able to get the window pane?” Lily asked, lifting up on her tip-toes to try to peer over at Remus’ bench._ _

__Remus lifted up his dough, stretching it and holding it up to the light. ‘Window panes’ in baking were essentially when you could stretch the dough so thin, it became transparent.”_ _

__“Em… Kind of? I mean it’s not perfect but I suppose it’s not the worst.” He shrugged and put it in the fridge. “As usual… that’s as good as it’s gonna get.”_ _

__Lily chuckled and placed her own dough in the fridge. “Seconded.”_ _

__Remus took out a pan and while it heated up, he started chopping sausage and black pudding into tiny pieces. He threw them on the pan to fry while he sliced an apple as thinly as possible before tossing them in the pan too. After he had taken his filling off the heat and let it cool down a little, he took out his dough and divided it into twenty five sections - leaving an extra piece of dough in case something went wrong._ _

__He rolled the dough out until he thought it couldn’t possibly get any thinner, and then he rolled it a little dough. As with the turnovers, adding the right amount of filling was a little tricky. Remus had discovered that exactly one tablespoon seemed to produce the best result, so he measured pedantically, wanting to make sure this challenge was as perfect as possible. He crimped the edges (he was going to be so good at crimping after this week) and popped his pastries into the oven, starting a timer and then all that was left to do right now, was wait._ _

__“This is the worst part.” Lily groaned. “It’s so boring.”_ _

__“Now I’m having school flashbacks.” Tonks agreed._ _

__“Oh my god, stop being so dramatic and just make a cup of tea.” Remus said. “Tea is the magic solution to everything.”_ _

__Tea, it turned out, was not quite the magic solution to _everything_ , because when Remus took his pastries out of the oven, a few of them had split._ _

__“But I had a formula!” He muttered mostly to himself. “Dumbass pastries, doing me dirty like this.”_ _

__“And here we have a wild Remus Lupin in his natural habitat.” Sirius commentated, appearing at his side. “Remus, are you really talking to the baking?”_ _

__Remus looked at him, his face revealing nothing. “They betrayed me.”_ _

__“Talking to them won’t change that.”_ _

__“Maybe not, but at least they’ll feel ashamed, the little shits.”_ _

__“Remus! Can you never let me get footage that I can actually use? I swear I spend half my time editing your scenes, you and your mouth.” Marlene exclaimed._ _

__Remus winced. “Oops?”_ _

__Marlene grumbled as she walked away. Sirius shot him a wink._ _

__“Don’t worry,” He said. “I quite like your mouth.”_ _

__Remus dropped the pastry he was holding. It was a good thing he made twenty five._ _

__

__Peter won star baker. “A bloody good thing too - pastries are basically the only thing I eat!” and a woman named Sarah was sent home. Remus registered approximately none of this. All he could hear were Sirius’ words replaying over and over in his head._ _

__“I quite like your mouth.”_ _

__It really was official. Remus Lupin was completely and utterly fucked._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Come say hi on tumblr


	4. Episode 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Welcome back to another week of Bake Off! I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I am! :)

_Tonight, on The Great British Bake Off;_

_“This is thick as hell.”_

_Will our bakers melt, or melt down? Only time will tell - it’s chocolate week in the tent!_

“I quite like your mouth.”

Remus stared at himself in the mirror. His mouth wasn’t that bad to be fair, but it was nothing next to Sirius’ own. _I quite like your mouth, I quite like your mouth, I quite like-_

“Remus? You ready?”

Remus shook himself. It was time to put all of this out of his head. “Yeah,” He called to Lily. “I’m coming.”

He left thoughts of Sirius in the hotel.

“This week,” Sirius announced, (looking ridiculously good in those skinny jeans Remus noticed), “Is possibly the best week.”

“Not being in any way subjective now, are you?” James quipped.

“Oi, you can’t say anything, last night you sang me a ballad about this week.”

“Ah yes you’re right, I’ll sing it for everyone, shall I?” James took a deep breath, but before he could get the first note out, Sirius had covered his mouth.

“It’s chocolate week!” Sirius interrupted quickly, succeeding in making everyone laugh as usual. For our lovely first challenge, our judges would like you to make brownies.”

Remus already knew this of course, but he couldn’t help but sneak a little smile to Lily. They were practising all week, Lily even surprised Remus with a batch of gluten free when she had still been experimenting with her flavours. Salted caramel was sacred to Remus now.

Remus heard Sirius and James say the rules in the background, but he had tuned out a little. It was hard to stop his mind from wandering to Sirius when the man in question was standing right in front of him. His hair was in a top knot today. Fuck if Remus didn’t love his hair like that, Throughout the day, it would loosen a little and strands would fall in front of Sirius’ face and Remus would imagine what they would look like wrapped around his fingers-

Remus blinked. Not here. Now it was time to focus. Chocolate week would be his week.

“Ready?”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus grabbed his ingredients and set to work.

Chocolate week was not his week.

Nothing was going quite to plan. He had burned the chocolate after leaving it in the bain marie a little too long - not so much that it required to be redone, but enough that Remus was annoyed at himself. He had misread his scales and added a little too much four and to top it off, he was pretty sure he had over-baked them.

“What are you making for us today?” The judges had asked when they had made their usual rounds at the start of the day. Remus had been calm and confident then. 

“Classic chocolate, just with walnuts added in.”

“Chopped, I assume?” Dumbledore said and Remus forced a smile on his face instead of rolling his eyes. 

“Of course.”

“I look forward to trying them.” McGonagall had said and then they had whisked themselves away, vanishing behind Remus to ask Lily some inane questions.

(Remus really didn’t mind the questions. He actually loved them - he had looked up to both judges all his life. Today was just, not his day).

Sirius turned up at his side, nabbing a spare square of chocolate and popping it into his mouth. Remus certainly didn’t think about chasing it with his lips. Nope, not at all.

“Hey Re.” Sirius greeted, as if the casual nickname didn’t just make Remus’ heart stutter. As if he hadn’t been flirting with Remus in this very spot not a week ago.

Remus hadn’t seen Sirius much since then which was pretty odd. The entire cast and crew mingled together on the non filming days and Sirius and James were infamous for showing up in the practice tent to try the bakers latest experiments. Only James had shown his face this week though. Remus hadn’t missed the way he always seemed to know when Lily was practicing, but that was another thing altogether.

He glanced up from where he was carefully piping chocolate designs on parchment paper to decorate the cakes when they were cool. “Hi.”

Sirius pulled out two mugs, ignoring Remus’ raised eyebrow and clicked the kettle. “Tea?”

“You’re taking over my work bench, are you?”

Sirius took his usual perch up on the counter as the tea brewed. “And what of it?”

Remus looked back down at what he was doing. He didn’t answer for a moment or two as he focused on a particularly intricate design, very aware of the way he stuck out his tongue when he was concentrating. “Haven’t seen much of you this week.”

Sirius hopped down to put milk and sugar in Remus’ mug, looking at Remus like he was a little mad. “I looked for you, but you’re a difficult man to pin down Remus Lupin.”

Remus felt his face flush as his mind flicked to how exactly he’s like to be pinned down by Sirius Black, but he swallowed weakly instead. “I was practicing mostly.”

Sirius nodded. “I know. I was there a few times but you were always absorbed in work for the showstopper so I didn’t want to bother you.”

Remus was relieved when his oven timer went off and he had an excuse to move away from Sirius for a moment. 

“You wouldn’t have bothered me.” He said as soon as he had transferred the contents of his tin onto a wire rack.”

Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but just then a microphone appeared over their heads, a cameraman right behind it.

“Feeling good about today?” Sirius asked pleasantly as if their previous conversation had never even existed. Remus’ smile felt tight. 

“I have absolutely no idea.” He breathed. He wasn’t just talking about the cakes.

Remus pursed his lips when he realised he was being judged last today. It wasn’t so bad, Remus just liked to get it over with as soon as possible. He was only partially satisfied with his brownies, but there was a lot more that could have gone wrong so Remus chose to try to maintain a slightly positive attitude. 

Peter’s brownies were a smash hit, Tonks’ didn’t look the neatest but apparently tasted fantastic. Lily’s blew them away. Remus didn’t hide his grin - he was just glad he had technically been the first to taste her recipe.

“They’re quite cake-like.” McGonagall commented, coming to a stop in front of Remus’ bench. Remus didn’t say anything, just pursed his lips.

“Flavours are good, the walnuts add a nice crunch.” Dumbledore said, munching away. “But one of the main features of brownies is that they’re soft, fudgey, even a little gooey.”

Dumbledore met Remus’ eyes. “These are good cakes, but the key word is they’re cakes, not brownies.”

Remus nodded, his jaw clenching. He closed his eyes in annoyance when they finally turned away. He knew he had over baked them. Fucking Sirius Black.

(Okay so Sirius wasn’t actually the cause of this particular problem but… Remus was a sucker for consistency).

He collapsed in a chair for lunch feeling the tension bleeding out of his muscles.

“Hey Re.” Tonks chuckled and Remus just cracked one eye open to peek at her.

For once, he was the last to the table, even James and Sirius seated before him. He sat up and dug into his pasta, unable to stop himself from actually groaning when he ate it.

“Sorry but, it’s _so good_. Also I’m so hungry but wow I’m going to need this recipe.”

He didn’t miss the way Sirius eyed him the rest of the way through lunch, or the smug little looks coming from Lily either. So maybe Remus had been a little blind to how Sirius had been looking at him before, but this week he was finally wide awake.

He took a moment to pop onto Bake Off Twitter to see what they were saying this week. There were even more gifs of him blushing, Sirius looking at him and one really great picture of the two of them laughing. There were other things too of course, the other contestants' opinions on last week's episode but Remus couldn’t help but notice he was one of the most popular topics.

His mindless scrolling was interrupted by his phone buzzing.

“Ooh, someone’s popular!” James teased and Remus rolled his eyes.

“Hi Ma,” He greeted, looking pointedly at James and sticking out his tongue.

“Hi sweetheart, how’s it going.?”

Remus began to move away so everyone else could continue their conversation but Lily swatted his wrist.

“I wanna say hi to Hope!”

“Yeah Remus! Don’t be rude!” Tonks chimed in and Remus rolled his eyes. 

“Mam, I’m gonna put you on speaker, the lads want to say hi.” He said, pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Hi Hope!” Lily said, everyone else joining in, a clamour of voices drowning out Remus’ laugh.

“Hi loves!” Hope said, Remus knowing she was having the time of her life. These people were like celebrities to her. “How’re you all doing?”

“Much better now that we get to chat to you.” Sirius charmed and Remus could practically see his mother blushing back in their kitchen at home. They all chatted for a little while longer before they had to get back to work.

“Hey mam, we’ve gotta go, but I’ll call you later, yeah?”

“Alright darling, I’ll chat to you soon. Good luck.”

“Bye mam, love you.”

Remus hung up biting his lip. “So that was my mom.”

“Really, you don’t say.” Tonks quipped.

“She’s my new best friend.” Lily sighed wistfully, sinking back into her chair.

“What does that make me?2 Remus asked. “A brick wall?”

Lily quirked an eyebrow. “I thought we were meant to be friends Re, but now I see we were just introduced so that I could get to know your mother. She was my destiny all along.”

“That’s not at all dramatic.” Remus deadpanned and they all started to move, getting up and ready for the next round of filming.

Sirius had been giving him a strange look towards the end of the phone call but when Remus met his eyes, he blinked once and it was gone. Remus wandered back into the tent with Lily and Tonks, debating if Tonks should dye her hair again ( _Pink; outdated or iconic?_ ) but the only colour Remus could think about was grey.

“For this challenge,” James said as soon as the cameras had recommenced recording, “Our judges have asked you to make a white chocolate and raspberry tart.”

“Everything you need is under the cloth in front of you,” Sirius continued. “Judges, do you have anything you’d like to say?”

“Read the instructions carefully.” McGonagall said, her face blank. Remus blinked.

“Well, they never would have guessed that!” Sirius said cheekily and Remus had to bite down his laugh.

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

Remus pulled back the gingham cloth, eyeing the fewer-than-usual set of ingredients. He picked up the sheet with instructions, found it vague as usual but it didn’t seem overly complicated.

“Am I allowed to say white chocolate isn’t real chocolate?” Sirius asked, gliding up to Remus’ bench, cameras in tow.

“I was wondering how long it would be before someone started that debate!” Lily chimed in. “We had a bet going, I won so thanks for that.”

Remus looked at Sirius accusingly. “You couldn't have waited ten more minutes?”

Sirius laughed to himself as he wandered away to talk to everyone and Remus set to work. They wanted a digestive base, so after weighing out the right amount, Remus grabbed a rolling pin and set to work smashing the biscuits.

“You know, you could just use a blender.” Lily called over the thrum of her own machine. Remus made a face at her.

“Yeah, but this is way more cathartic.” He countered.

“Got some tension you need to relieve?” Tonks teased and Remus was suddenly really glad Sirius was on the other side of the tent.

He put his most innocent smile on his face, looked her right in the eyes and flipped her off. Lily and Tonks burst into a laughing fit. Marlene just sighed and looked at Remus a little hopelessly.

“One of these days Remus, I won’t have to edit every shot you’re in.”

Remus just shot her a cheeky wink. “Keep dreaming Marlene.”

Remus scrunched up his nose as he tried to pour the chocolate into the tin. He had placed the raspberries so that they covered the base of the pastry and now all he had to do was add the chocolate and pop it all in the fridge to set. But the chocolate mixture was a lot thicker than he had anticipated. 

“Fuck…” He breathed, drawing out the word as he tried to even it out with a spatula, only succeeding in moving the berries around and messing up the distribution.

“You alright?” Lily asked.

Remus glanced back, shooting her a smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. This is just thick as hell.”

“White chocolate’s a bitch like that.” Lily agreed.

“Seriously?” Malene exclaimed. “Now you too Lily? I’m firing both of you.”

Remus laughed and handed her a spare piece of chocolate. “Sorry Marlene.”

Marlene rolled her eyes but smiled. “I hate you.”

Remus blew her a kiss. “Love you too!”

He bit his lip and evened out the top of his tart before putting it into the fridge so it had as long as possible to set.

“And now we wait.”

They set their tarts behind their pictures, Peter being ridiculously cautious, looking around himself before he made any movements. Remus appreciated it, but found it hilarious all the same.

He sat on the stool as the judges came out with a familiarity that was new. He liked it. He had watched the show for as long as it had been on air, watching it gave him the same feeling you might get when curling up under a blanket and a good book when it’s pouring rain outside. He liked being comfortable on the show now too.

The judges came out, Remus’ tart right in the centre of the table. 

“This one looks quite good,” McGonagall said as she cut a slice, “But there doesn’t seem to be as many raspberries as I would have hoped.”

Remus bit his lip. She had snagged a slice from a section all the berries had been disrupted. Fucking white chocolate.”

“Everything else however, is lovely.” Dumbledore said and Remus breathed easy, it wasn’t the worst one, not by far. A tart belonging to a woman named Susan hadn’t even set properly. Remus wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up going home tomorrow, she had certainly lost the technical and from what Remus remembered, she hadn’t done too well in the first challenge either.

Kingsley won the technical, smiling at everyone congratulating him. Remus liked Kingsley a lot, the other man was quiet, so he didn’t know him too well but any interaction they’d had was always pleasant.

The camera’s stopped rolling and everyone filed over to the table to grab themselves a slice of the best tarts. Remus noticed Sirius hanging back for once, so he sidled up next to him.

“Not a fan?” He asked. Sirius shook his head.

“Nah, white chocolate is much too sweet for me.”

“Right,” Remus said, tilting his head. “You don’t even take sugar in your tea.”

Sirius bit his lip and took his time replying. “There’s only so many sweet things I can handle,” He said, leaning in closer to Remus, who mirrored his movements on instinct. “And you fill that quota completely.”

Remus stood there frozen as Sirius smiled at him before leaving the tent. Lily came up next to him, a plate in hand.

“Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Oh it’s so much worse than that.”

“What happened?” She asked, concerned. 

“Sirius Black is flirting with me.” He half whispered. “And I’m so completely and utterly fucked.”

Lily smirked and bumped her hip against Remus’. “More like you _will_ be completely and utterly fucked.”

“Lily!”

The noise escaping Lily in response could only be described as a cackle. Remus lay awake half the night replaying Sirius’ words over and over in his head. He was so screwed.

“Welcome back!” James began, “It’s time for our showstopper challenge!”

“This week,” Sirius said, “Our judges want you to create a 3D chocolate structure.”

Remus bit his lip. He had practiced. A lot. But this would still be a challenge.

“Your creation should be entirely edible and entirely chocolate. As usual, you have four and a half hours. Ready?”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus set off, faster than he had for the last few challenges. He could do this, but he needed time. He immediately set out breaking up chocolate to melt, two rectangular silicone moulds ready to go. He poured an equal amount of milk chocolate into each and made sure they were spread evenly before putting them in the fridge.

“Damn Re, that was fast.” Lily commented, still filling her mould.

“That’s not what he said.” Remus retorted with a wink and Lily snorted behind him.

Remus kept melting chocolate, white was next on his agenda. When it was melted, he added a couple of drops of orange essence and mixed it in. He spread it quite thinly over two large trays, wishing it had been this co-operative in the previous challenge, and put them in the fridge too.

“Hey,” Sirius said softly, arriving at his station. Remus broke off a piece of dark chocolate and offered it out to him.

“This is your favourite type I’m guessing?”

Sirius blushed. It was fun to see Remus wasn’t the only one who could do that. 

“Yeah,” He said, his voice low. “Yeah it is, thanks.”

Remus took out a clean bowl and started breaking pieces of dark chocolate into it. “Everything okay?”

Sirius frowned. “Does something have to be wrong for me to be here?”

Remus shook his head quickly. “No! I mean, no. I just meant…” He glanced around the room and saw no microphone close enough to capture their conversation but cameras were panning the room. He kept his eyes on his work and his voice hushed. “Well, you know what I meant.”

“Yeah,” Sirius fiddled with a tea towel he found on Remus’ counter. “Can we talk? Later?”

Remus nodded. “I’d like that.”

Sirius smiled at him and moved away, walking around to the rest of the room. Remus took a shaky breath. He would talk to Sirius later. He straightened his shoulders and set his jaw, he would be calm about this. He could obsess about it later. Right now? He had a big ass chocolate sculpture to make.

“Bakers, you have thirty minutes left!” James announced a while later and Remus shared a mildly panicked look with Lily. He took his many many trays of chocolate out of the fridge and set to work assembling his piece. He measured the white chocolate and cut precise, identical rectangles, biting his lip as he prayed the chocolate wouldn’t snap. It would appear luck was on his side today because it all cut cleanly. He sighed in relief and set up the flat stand it would be displayed on. He filled his piping bag with dark chocolate and unfolded the page of notes he had brought in with him that day and began writing on the white chocolate slabs.

“Bakers! Please step away from your benches!”

Remus fiddled with his hands as he stepped away, looking at his creation. It was… It was fucking perfect is what it was.

Lily presented first, a gorgeous goldfish made of chocolate and sprayed with edible paint. Lily had even carved the scales into the surface, Remus was blown away by the amount of detail in it.

Tonks had made a little castle - two towers and a main building, it was ridiculously charming, Remus wished he could live there. 

Remus walked up with his and stood back so he could look at it too. It was a book - Pride and Prejudice to be exact, standing up and cracked a little open so some pages were on display. Pages on which Remus had written the exact text from the book, the cover based off the hardback edition Remus had at home.

“I must say Mr Lupin,” McGonagall said, “As a big Jane Austen fan, I’m quite charmed by this.”

She broke away a ‘page’ and popped a piece in her mouth. “The orange flavouring is a lovely touch.”

Dumbledore broke off a piece from the back cover and nodded in agreement. “Very good, I’m quite impressed.”

Remus beamed at them and returned to his bench. He was so unbelievably glad they liked it, if they hadn’t well, he might have actually cried.

Sirius caught his eye and smiled at him. Remus smiled back.

They sat in a row once more a little while later, but Remus wasn’t afraid. He hadn’t done as well as he might have liked yesterday, but he still wasn’t bad. And he had done quite well today. He was pretty sure he was safe for today. 

As he suspected, Susan went home. Tonks won star baker and Remus had the rare opportunity of getting to try the other baker’s work since it was all made purely of chocolate.

“Take a walk with me?” Sirius asked after a little while, the euphoria of another week done fading and the remaining contestants beginning to trickle back to the hotel. Remus nodded and sent Lily a quick text and then he followed Sirius out of the tent and away from the cameras and microphones and contestants.

And then it was just the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on tumblr at onlydreamofmysoul there's a bit of fun content every now and then!
> 
> I think there's a problem with the links I had before - I'm trying to fix them but I don't know a whole lot about technology. I'll try get it fixed as soon as possible h=though!


	5. Episode 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Sorry for the minor delay but this one is longer than usual so I hope that makes up for it!

_Tonight on The Great British Bake Off…_

_“It’s all burned!”_

_“Oh my god, I forgot to put them in.”_

_“It’s all curdled. I don’t know what I’ll do.”_

Remus woke up that morning with a bitter taste in his mouth. That was happening a lot lately. He got ready in a series of mechanic motions, showering, dressing, brushing his teeth. He met Lily outside the hotel, and she being the magical being that she was, had a coffee in a take-away cup ready for him.

“Hey,” She said softly. “You ready for today?”

Remus bit the inside of his cheek. “I suppose I’ll have to be.”

_Six days earlier..._

“Take a walk with me?” Sirius asked and Remus nodded his affirmations. As if he could say no. He followed Sirius out of the tent and they started strolling in the opposite direction of the hotel, avoiding the crowds of the bakers and crew packing up for the day.

“So you made it.” Sirius said after a moment or two of silence. Remus sneaked a peek at the other man out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah,” He said scratching the back of his neck. “If I had gone home I’m not sure if I ever would have been able to eat chocolate again, and that would be a big problem since I think it’s my main food group.”

Sirius burst out laughing and Remus blushed a little, pleased. They were well out of ear shot of anyone else, almost out of sight too. There was a massive oak tree in the middle of an open field and Sirius stepped onto the grass grinning. 

“C’mere, I found a cool spot.”

Remus bit down a smile as he followed him, taking a breath in when they rounded the wide trunk and found a wide swing hanging from a branch, the trunk of the tree completely shielding them from view.

“This is amazing.” Remus said, reaching out to touch the rope, running his fingers over the wooden planks forming a seat. “When did you find this place?”

Sirius shrugged and sat on one side of it, the swing tilting ever so slightly with the imbalance. “Some time in the first few days.” He patted the space still left open, “You gonna sit?”

“Who else knows about it?” Remus asked, rounding the swing. 

“As far as I know… just me. And now you.”

Remus sat and the ropes evened out again. Remus rocked back and forth on his toes a little, the swing swaying soothingly with him.

“It’s brilliant, I love it.” 

Sirius smiled. “Yeah, I thought you would.”

_Today..._

“Guys! Hang on!” Remus heard but before he had even turned around, someone crashed into him.

“Woah!” He exclaimed, stumbling a little because suddenly he had a bubbly pink haired woman on his back.

“Hi Tonks.” He said laughing, when he had recovered his footing. Tonks wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.

“Don’t let the cardigans fool you,” She said to Lily seriously, “He’s deceptively strong.”

Lily smiled, Peter falling in line with them. “I can see that.”

“Ooh! Bake Off love!” Marlene exclaimed, snapping a couple of pictures of them all together, Tonks still on Remus’ back. “These will be great on Instagram.”

“Oh great, now there’s gonna be theories of us dating.” Remus said dryly, even though he smiled a little. “What do you think our ship name will be?” 

“Ronks.” Lily snorted and no one could stop themselves from laughing at it.

“Is it bad that I kinda like it?” Tonks said, still giggling. “Like it’s ridiculous but that's why you’ve gotta love it.”

Remus nodded and bumped their hips together playfully. “It’s a perfect fit for a perfect couple.” He teased, then ignored the slight pang in his chest, even at his own words.

“Wait, you guys are dating?” Peter asked, completely bewildered and Remus shot him an incredulous look. 

“Of course we’re not, we’re just joking Pete.”

Tonks gasped, her hand covering her chest. “Are you saying you wouldn’t want to be with me?”

“Of course not my love, we would be spectacular.”

“You can see why I’d get confused,” Peter mumbled to Lily.

“But,” Remus continued, drawing out the word before quickly spitting out the next sentence as he laughed a little. “I’m much to gay for that.”

“Here, here!” Tonks cried and they joked all the way down to the set. “Semi finals next week, I can’t believe we’re here already.”

“Oh my god I’m so not ready to think about that yet.” Lily chimed in, Remus and Peter nodding their agreements.

Remus felt his shoulders tense as they entered the tent, but after a quick glance around, he realised Sirius wasn’t there. He probably shouldn’t be so relieved, he would have to see him eventually so really Remus was just prolonging the inevitable but you can’t blame a guy for wanting to avoid an awkward situation. He stood at his station, but turned around so he was leaning on Lily’s counter as they chatted. He stayed that way until the producers started yelling for everyone to get ready and he turned around. At some point Sirius had come into the room. Remus didn’t meet his gaze.

“Welcome back! This week on The Great British Bake Off… It’s pudding week!”

“For our signature challenge,” Sirius continued, “Our judges have asked that you make a bread and butter pudding.”

“Sounds simple right?.” James grinned. “The catch is, you have to make it with bread you bake yourself.”

“Your time starts now, ready?”

“Set.” 

“Bake!”

Remus looked away from the head of the tent as quickly as he could, ready to have an excuse to not look at Sirius. Especially Sirius in a leather jacket. He gathered his ingredients and set to work. Bread and butter pudding. That he could do.

_Six days earlier..._

“So,” Remus said as he swayed them back and forth. “Here we are.”

Sirius smiled. “Here we are.”

Remus bit his lip for a moment trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to say. _So, you like my mouth? You wanted to talk? Do you think about me the same way I think about you?_

Instead he blurted out; “What’s your favourite cake?”

Sirius blink then looked at him with this startled but pleased smile. Like he was surprised by the question, but also like he had known Remus’ words before Remus even spoke them.

“Lemon meringue pie.”

“That’s not a cake.”

“But it’s still my favourite.”

Remus pursed his lips to hide his smile. “That's… sweeter than you usually like.” 

Sirius’ small smile grew. “Correct as always. It’s less to do with taste and more to do with memories I guess.”

Remus tilted his head. “Yeah? What memories?”

Sirius laughed a little. “Inquisitive today aren’t we?”

Remus raised an eyebrow. His signature move. “Is there anything ELSE you’d like to talk about?” He asked pointedly.

Sirius looked at him knowingly for a moment, but then shook his head minutely. “James’ mum used to make it every Sunday. She even taught me how, after I’d badger her to make more.”

Remus grinned. “She sounds great.”

“Sirius relaxed a bit, leaning back against the rope and tucking on foot under his knee. If Remus did it, he would have looked ridiculous and would most likely have fallen right off the swing and flat on his face on the ground. But when Sirius did it, the movement retained all the airs Sirius brought to the world, carefree, casual. elegant.

“So, how do you feel after this week?”

Remus groaned. “Can we not talk about Bake Off? I mean I love it and all but I need a break.”

Sirius chuckled. “That’s fair. I suppose I could use one too.”

“Yeah? What’re you gonna do?” Remus asked and it wasn’t until he said it that he realised it sounded almost flirty.

Surprise flickered in Sirius’ grey eyes and his gaze flickered from Remus’ own amber eyes to his lips. Remus tilted his head ever so slightly, tongue wetting his lips a little as his breath hitched and they were both leaning in, closer and closer until-

“-Remus.” Sirius said voice low, jaw clenching even as his eyes stayed trained on Remus’ lips. “We shouldn’t.”

Remus frowned, the spell breaking a little. “What? I don’t understand.”

“We work together.” Sirius said, sitting back once again and turning his head away. “It would be frowned upon.”

Remus looked at him in disbelief. “Who says anyone has to know?”

Sirius tugged on the tie in his hair and the dark waves tumbled down to his shoulders before he ran his fingers through it. “You’re looking strong for winning this thing. I don’t want anyone doubting your integrity.”

Remus shook his head in pure and utter confusion. “But Sirius, you’re not a judge. I don’t think it would even be possible for you to ruin my integrity.”

Sirius just shook his head silently. Throat tight, Remus stood up and took a few steps away. He looked back at Sirius and paused. 

“What about everything you said? Sirius, I know you were flirting with me. And just forty minutes ago you asked me to come here with you. What happened?”

“I remembered.” Sirius said hollowly.

“Remember what?”

But Sirius didn’t answer. Remus waited, but the other man just stood up and walked away. Remus sat back down for a moment and put his head in his hands. How did he get here? This morning he felt sure. Now he felt… well he didn’t know what he felt.

He hung back to give Sirius a head start so there would be no chance of them running into each other. Then Remus stood up and walked back to the hotel. Alone.

_Today..._

“Fucking fuck fuckeroo I’ve fucking burned my freaking bread. Fuck!” Remus said as he pulled the slightly overdone loaf from the oven.

“Hey Remus, want to try again, but like… viewer friendly this time?” Marlene called.

Remus flipped her off but then gave her a thumbs up and went again.

“Oh no! I’ve burned the bread!” He cried and Marlene rolled her eyes. 

“Remus Lupin I’m going to have you fired.”

“Love you too!” He said with a wink before turning back to figure out what the hell he was going to try to do.

“You’re awful.” Lily said to him as she took her own loaves out of the oven.

Remus shot her a wink too. “I know.”

In the end, Remus cut off all the crusts of his bread, knowing that it might slightly impede the structural integrity but at the same time… It was a pudding. They barely have any structure in the first place.

He whipped up his cream and added in some saffron, nutmeg and sugar then began making layers upon layers of bread and cream. He left out any raisins both because he hated them and he knew Dumbledore had a particular aversion to them and well he was willing to do anything to win a little bit of favour. He covered it all with another thick layer of cream, sprinkling the top with extra nutmeg and cinnamon.

He popped it into the oven and set his timer before asking Lily to keep an eye on his station for a moment just in case while he nipped off to the loo.

As soon as he stepped out of the tent they filmed in, he was hit with a wave of cool air and he breathed in gratefully - having several ovens in one space always led to quite a hot temperature in the tent. He splashed some water on his face in the bathroom and rolled back his shoulders. He didn’t know why he felt so… off. Okay he did, and that reason was the notorious Sirius Black, but Remus had decided from the very first day that he wouldn’t let anything get in the way of his baking. And here he was doing exactly that. He squared his shoulders and met his own eyes in the mirror. 

“Get a grip.” He told himself and went back to the tent.

Apparently his little pep talk had absolutely no effect, because after burning his bread, he topped off the baking experience by burning the pudding too. It was beginning to look like another stellar baking week for Remus.

“It’s a bit dark.” McGonagall commented as she dolled out a serving for both herself and Dumbledore.

 _‘Yeah, no shit’_ Remus wanted to say. Instead he just nodded his head.

“Even with the cream, the bread is a little dry.” Dumbledore said after taking a bite. Remus clenched his jaw, frustrated with himself. “And it’s a little bitter from being in the oven a nit too long. Overall, not your best work Mr Lupin.”

Remus sat down once more and found himself taking a shaky breath. That was definitely not how he wanted to start this week. He comforted himself by saying that he’d do much better in the other challenges. Nearly everybody else did quite well. The only person worse than Remus was Peter who had somehow, by laws unknown to Remus and possibly to science had managed to have quite a liquid consistency. 

Remus went to lunch a little put-out but chatting with everyone never failed to cheer him up almost instantly.

“They could have drank it with a straw!” Peter moaned, dropping his forehead onto the table. “I don’t even know how! The cream was whipped so well before it all went in the oven!”

“Hard luck mate.” James said, patting Peter on the shoulder as he slid into a seat next to Lily. Remus didn’t miss the way they leaned slightly towards each other. He wondered if their story would end better than his and Sirius’. Even Kingsley had joined them, making Sirius’ absence more stark.

“What’s Twitter up to this week?” Tonks asked, peering over Remus’ shoulder as he pulled the page up. 

“Um, let’s see,” Remus typed in the bake off tag and watched as all the posts rolled up. “They’re still weak for your hair Tonks,” He said and Tonks flicked her hair dramatically in response. “Oh my god there’s a twitter war.”

“Wait what?” Tonks asked, leaning in closer as everyone else gathered around. 

“From the picture of you and me this morning. There’s people shipping you and me versus people shipping me and Sirius.”

“Oh my god, that is comedy gold.” Peter said, oblivious. Remus didn’t know what Sirius had told James, but he suspected _something_ from the careful way James controlled his face. 

“I’m just gonna see where Sirius is.” James said as he stood up. “I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”

The pair didn’t return for lunch, the next everyone saw of them was when shooting recommenced. Remus had given himself a mental pep talk as he walked back to his station, consisting purely of _'Come on Lupin, don't fuck this up, you can do this._

“You ready?” Lily queried as the microphones were put into position.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, you?”

“About the same I’d say.”

“Okay and we’re recording in three, two and one.” Marlene said, pointing her finger towards James and Sirius to indicate that they were rolling.

“Our bakers just faced their signature challenge and while they might not have liked it, I must say, it was my bread and butter!” James opened and Remus covered his mouth with his hand because he refused to have the entire nation know he was even mildly amused by that terrible pun, but Remus really was a sucker for them.

Sirius rolled his eyes playfully. “Oh my god Jamie, that’s bad even for you.”

“I thought that was excellent, thank you very much.”

“I’m choosing to ignore you now.” Sirius bantered. “For our technical challenge, our judges would like you to make six individual sticky toffee puddings, judges, have you got anything to say?”

“Be mindful of your vanilla.” Dumbledore warned and Remus bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing at the ‘advice’. It was always so vague, they might not bother saying anything at all.

“Alright judges, out you go,” James said ushering the pair out the door.. Sirius faced the bakers and grinned.

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

Remus turned around to Lily. “Be mindful of your vanilla.” He said in a very serious turn. Lily threw the cloth covering her ingredients at him. All was well.

James swung by Remus’ station a little while later. “How’s it going?”

Remus was just finishing cutting out little circles of parchment paper to line the bottom of the little pots he would bake the puddings in. He had already liberally greased the edges with butter and he just needed to pop the parchment circles in.

“Alright, I haven’t actually done any baking yet.” Remus said laughing. James grabbed the leftover scrap of paper and attempted to make some kind of crown out of it. 

“Here ye, here ye!” Remus joked, noticing half the cameras in the room training on them. 

“I think I should be king of the bake off Remus, what do you think?”

Remus nodded along solemnly/ “Oh yes of course James, your baking skills are incredible.”

“I can bake!” James protested.

“Sure, sure,” Remus teased, beginning to measure ingredients. “But if you’re the king of bake off, who will make all the terrible puns.”

James covered his heart with his hand. “You wound me Remus, truly.”

Remus chucked a date at his head, but James just opened his mouth and caught it.”

Remus burst out laughing. “Okay that was good, you can be the king of bake off now.”

“Why thank you.” James said before heading off to chat to Lily next, still wearing his paper crown. 

Remus turned back to his baking and began mixing ingredients together. He was careful to split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the mix. In the end he was pretty happy with his batter, and poured it carefully into his pots, being careful not to pass the three quarter mark as they would rise in the oven and he didn’t want to have them spill over the edge.

He popped them in the oven and began to start work on the toffee, measuring ingredients as he let the pot heat up. He tossed in the butter and sugar and stirred a little before making a cup of tea. He came back to his toffee-to-be a few minutes later to see he had left it unattended too long and it had all crystallised.

“Fuck!” He said, emptying the contents onto a plate and quickly starting again.

“Oof, they crystallised?” Lily asked, on her tiptoes peering over at Remus’ work.

“Yup. I have just enough time to go again though.”

This time, the devil himself wouldn’t be able to lure Remus away from his bot.

 _A watched pot never boils.’_ He thought. “Yeah well a watched pot never burns either.” He muttered, aware that he would probably come across as mildly insane but fuck it.

“Are you talking to yourself?” A lovely lilting voice asked and Remus froze for a moment before continuing to stir.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Sirius asked

“Because I’m an excellent conversationalist.”

Remus knew Sirius would be smiling even if he couldn’t see him. He slowly added the cream into his pot, folding it all in nicely.

“Well I can’t refute that statement.” Sirius agreed and Remus almost wanted to tell him to fuck off because even now Sirius was so lovely and Remus wanted to turn and see his smile, except he knew it wouldn’t be the same. It would be purely for the camera and there would be no little sly glances or secret winks and that gorgeous sparkle in his eye would be gone.

_Or was it ever even there in the first place?_

Remus took the pot off the heat and let it sit for a moment as he took the puddings out of the oven. He set them all on a cooling rack and turned to start taking them out of the pots when he spotted six identical little parchment paper circles sitting on the counter.

“Oh fuck.” He whispered. He never actually put them in the pots. “Oh Christ. Oh for fucks sake.” He said running his fingers through his hair. 

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked, coming over to him and resting her hand on his shoulder.

“I never put the parchment paper in, they’re going to stick to the pot and be ruined.”

“You greased it though didn’t you? That’ll help a lot, there’s still hope yet.” She leaned in close again and whispered, “And if they go to hell you can bump into Peter when we’re putting them on the table and pretend he knocked them over again.”

Remus chuckled and gave her a quick hug. “Thank you, now go away because we don’t need yours ruined too.”

“They’re not ruined!” Lily yelled back at him and Remus smiled as he dug through his cutlery drawer to find the thinnest knife that he could. Biting his lip in concentration he carefully ran the knife along the inside of the pot to loosen the sides, then he flipped it over quickly and gently eased the pudding out. There was a little bit of the tip missing but - it could easily be covered with the toffee so all in all, Remus was actually quite happy. 

“One down, five to go!” He called to Lilly but also for the benighted of Marlene who was hovering nearby, cameras trained on what Remus was doing. 

The second one came out quite well two and Remus was beginning to feel a spark of hope when the third one completely split in half - the top still in the pot.

“Oh shittttttt.” Remus sang to himself, trying not to worry too much. He just kept going, he could assemble that one later. The following three had the exact same result. Marlene was hovering around him, capturing the tension. Remus looked up and stared right into the lens as if he were on The Office and said “I jinxed myself.”

He managed to coax the top halves out of their containers and gently put them back together again. He drizzled a liberal amount of toffee over the tops before having a moment of inspiration. He grabbed the abandoned crystallised toffee and used it to decorate the tops of the puddings before transferring them all to the rectangular plate he’d be presenting them on, adding a little bit of toffee to the plate to help regain any visual aestheticism. 

“Alright bakers!” Sirius called, “Your time is up. Please walk your cakes up to the table at the front of the tent.”

Lily walked up next to Remus and mimed ‘accidentally’ bumping into Peter and Remus snorted as he set his plate down behind his picture.

“You’re insane,” He whispered to her as they sat down on their stools.

“You love me though.” She quipped back and Remus grinned at her before the judges came out.

“Hello again bakers!” Dumbledore greeted. They chorused back a hello and then the judges set to work. The judges actually cringed when they bit into Peter’s dish and on the other side of Remus, Peter was quivering a little.

“Our tip to be mindful with the vanilla went unnoticed with this one it would seem.” McGonagall commented and Remus had to stop himself from looking at Peter to figure out what the hell he did.

“It would appear this person included their vanilla pod.” Dumbledore said, trying to hide his cringe. “For future reference, it’s the seeds inside the pod you eat, not the outside layer.”

Remus knew Peter’s face was bright red without even looking at him, but he didn’t glance to the side for fear of giving away who had actually made the cakes.

Remus’ were up next, McGonagall looking at them cynically. “The presentation is quite lacking I must admit.”

“Yes, they’re a bit messy,” Dumbledore agreed as he cut into one. They each took a bite, nodding solemnly for a moment. “They certainly taste good though.”

McGonagall nodded in agreement and just like that they had moved on to the next person’s work. Remus let out a deep sigh. It wasn’t how he had wanted it to go but… at least they had tasted good. He was still annoyed at himself for forgetting the parchment paper but he had to let it go now.

The judges were quick to decide this week. With only five contestants left and a tangible need to make it to the semi finals next week, there was a buzz in the air, at least it felt that way to Remus.

Or, it did feel that way until he came second last in the technical and suddenly he was seriously beginning to fear that this time next week, he’d be at home.

Peter came last. Tonks won; Kingsley and Lily filling in the middle spots.

Remus headed back to the hotel, talking quietly to Lily but really just planning his strategy for tomorrow. Considering his recipe. Mentally changing the flavours, then switching them back. The order he would make everything. If he should just head straight to the practice tent and make it one more time. 

Lily wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against him. Remus used to always look at people walking like this and think it must be so incredibly awkward, but this felt natural.

“It’s better to rest now then practice some more. You’re ready.” She said as if she could read his mind. Maybe after five weeks of being together every day, she could.

He smiled and placed a kiss to the top of her head, loving their friendship. “Thanks Lils.”

She peered up at him, those eyes vibrantly green, hidden slightly under her eyelashes. “Wanna make hot chocolate?”

Remus grinned as he put his arm over her shoulders and gave her a grateful squeeze. “That sounds like heaven.”

The next day began with the sunlight filtering slowly through the open windows as Remus got dressed. It was late enough in the year now that he woke up in darkness, but he always liked getting to watch the sun rise so it didn’t bother him. The air was crisp outside when he walked down with Lily and it felt like a new beginning.

“Let’s do this.” Lily said, holding out her fist as they entered the tent and Remus looked at her in mild amusement, but bumped his knuckles against hers lightly.

They set up their stations quietly, not having much to do, Remus just liked it organised slightly differently to the way the cleaning crew left it. Everyone seeped in quietly, the tension from yesterday lingering. 

Marlene announced their start and suddenly they were off, James and Sirius bantering away with a familiar chemistry rarely found between two presenters.

“Welcome back for the showstopper challenge!” James greeted, Sirius grinning at his side. “Today our judges have asked you to reimagine a dish as a trifle.”

Remus remembered the first time he had heard that and thought it was a little weird, but he liked it. Back then he had planned to have a ‘death by chocolate’ theme but he changed his recipe last week. Lily was making a carrot cake creation that looked amazing. Tonks was wowing with a baked Alaska inspired dish. Peter had embraced chocolate chip cookies and they were featuring heavily in his. Kingsley was doing something with a lot of apples but Remus didn’t know many of the specifics. Kingsley wasn’t secretive, but he wasn’t majorly talkative either.

“You know Sirius, I once fought with a man over his multi layered cake,” James was saying vibrantly.

“Is that so?”

“Indeed. However I soon learned he was not to be trifled with.”

The light went out of Sirius’ eyes. “You’re fired.” He said to James in a deadpan voice and the entire tent burst into giggles.

Sirius sighed and turned to everyone. “On your marks, get set, bake!”

“Hey! We’re supposed to say that together!”

“Yeah well I fired you so it’s mine now.”

Remus couldn’t stop himself from chuckling as he set to work. Was he unsure of what was happening between himself and Sirius? Yes. Did he still have feelings for the man? Undoubtedly. 

He immediately set to work making the meringues, those were gonna be hard to get done in time - they took two hours in the oven and then they had to cool down completely before Remus could do anything with them. He whipped the egg whites and sugar on high speed, until there were ‘stiff peaks’, the mixture was lovely and shiny and Remus felt like he was spooning marshmallow into his piping bag.

He made three circles of meringue, all the same size as his trifle dish along with a few little meringue kisses to decorate the top. He popped the trays into the preheated oven and set to work preparing everything else. He turned around to grab a tea towel and his elbow hit a glass bowl on the counter and it fell to the ground, shattering and leaving sparkling shards all over Remus’ station.

“Crap okay, can I get a brush over here please?”

A crew member helped him sweep it up as quickly as possible so he could get back to work. James sidled up to his counter as he started making a lemon curd, a suspicious grin on his face.

“I see you’re having a _smashing_ time.”

Remus looked up from adding the grated lemon rind. “I thought you were fired.”

James just laughed and ruffled Remus’ hair in a way that if anyone else had done it, it would have annoyed Remus, but it was okay from James.

“I’ll let you get back to work.” And then he was off and Remus could once again focus. He looked down into his pot and nearly started to cry. It had curdled. 

He stepped away for a moment, covering his face with his hands as he took a deep breath. It would be okay, he had time to make more. It just seemed like ever since Sirius had walked away a week ago, nothing had gone quite right.

On Monday, the restaurant made a mistake and gave Remus normal pasta, resulting in him being very sick for a while. On Tuesday, a pair of shoes he had long since worn in gave him blisters. Wednesday had him spilling tea all over his special edition book. Thursday he ripped a hole in his favourite cardigan and Friday Sirius walked into a room, saw Remus and immediately left. Saturday had been the signature and technical challenge and now he was here.

He jolted when a hand gingerly reached out and touched his shoulder. Light as a feather at first, barely the brush of fingertips but then the palm of the hand pressed reassuringly into Remus’ skin.

“Re?” Sirius asked. Remus heart soared and shattered at the same time. How was that even possible? 

“I’m fine it’s just a lot today I think.”

“Do you want to step outside for a few?”

Remus shook his head as he turned to face Sirius. “No it’s okay, thanks. I don’t have enough time.”

Sirius’ eyes were conflicted for a moment but the next thing Remus knew, he was being pulled down into a tight hug.

“Sorry,” Sirius mumbled, “I should have asked first, it’s just you looked so upset and-”

“It’s okay.” Remus whispered, his mouth by Sirius’ ear.

He pulled away reluctantly, wanting to stay in the comfort of Sirius’ arms longer but very aware of all the cameras trained on them.

“Thanks,” He mumbled to Sirius, his face flushed. “I should get back to it.”

Sirius nodded and Remus went back to work, the presenter heading off to chat to someone else. Taking another breath, Remus began grating another lemon. It was time to start again.

Assembling the trifle was possibly Remus’ favourite showstopper to put together so far, just because of how simple it was. He placed a meringue disk at the bottom, followed by lemon curd, then repeated it twice, until his top layer was a bright yellow substance. He grinned looking inside the glass dish - he was really glad he chose to pipe the curd in, it made the lines much cleaner.

He placed the meringue kisses on top, then grated chocolate over everything and he finished just as James called time.

Remus watched the judges fall in love with Tonks’ amazing baked Alaska and beamed at the praise for his friend. Lily did very well too. Kingsley had a few problems but overall he seemed quite happy with his baking. Peter’s was only marginally better. And then it was Remus.

He walked up to the table at the front of the room, suddenly very aware of Sirius standing with James to the side of the judges.

“Remind us of what this is inspired by Mr Lupin?” Dumbledore asked as he and McGonagall took in the trifle.

“Lemon meringue.” Remus said, his chest tight.

Sirius’ looked up sharply, meeting his eyes. Remus nodded minutely.

They each took a helpful and took a moment considering the flavours.

“I’m impressed, Mr Lupin.” Dumbledore said. “I was worried the curd would be too wet and dissolve the meringue.”

McGonagall nodded. “Were you not worried that this might be a little simple for a showstopper?”

Remus shook his head. “A classic is a classic for a reason.”

McGonagall graced him with a very rare smile and for the first time this week, Remus felt like he had done something right.

They all sat on the stools a little while later, waiting and waiting and waiting while the judges took the longest time to decide yet this series. Remus knew it was down to Peter and himself. One of them was going home today. Remus just didn’t know who.

Peter had done a little worse than Remus yesterday, but had recovered a lot today. Remus knew he himself had also gained some ground, he just didn’t know if it was enough. He hoped it was. He feared it wasn’t.

James and Sirius emerged first, the judges next, none of their faces giving anything away.

“Today I have the pleasure of announcing star baker.” James said smiling, “For the second week in a row… Tonks!”

Remus grinned and kissed Tonks on the cheek as she was sitting right next to him. Both because he was proud of her but also to mess with Twitter a little bit.

“Sadly, I have the awful job of announcing who’s going home today.” Sirius said, nothing about him giving anything away. Remus’ heart pounded, he could feel his heartbeat in his fingertips. “This person has been a pleasure to work with and we’ll all be very sad to see them leave.”

Remus found breathing a little difficult. Would Sirius just hurry up and say it?

“Leaving us today will be… Peter.”

Down the line a little, Peter’s shoulders slumped and while Remus was disappointed for him, all he could feel was the adrenaline surge now that all the tension had melted away from his body. They all lingered in the tent for a while, congratulating Tonks and giving Peter their commiserations. 

McGonagall came up to Remus at one point and spoke to him quietly. “Not your best week Mr Lupin.”

Remus shook his head. “No.”

McGonagall met his eyes. “You have amazing potential. I’ve seen you do great things, I hope I get to see them again.” She said before slinking back into the crowd. Remus blinked. It was possibly the most reassuring thing he had ever heard about his baking. He wanted to write her words down so he could keep them forever.

He was staying a little while longer.

Remus went straight to his room when he got back to the hotel, skipping the usual gathering they had after finishing filming that week as he was just exhausted after his day. He threw his clothes over the back of a chair in his room to be put away tomorrow and threw on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, a thick pair of socks on his feet. He turned off the over head light, flicking on his lamp instead and just about to crawl into bed with his book when he heard the faintest knock on his door.

He frowned, a little wondering who it could be. Lily? No, she would be downstairs talking to James. Not Tonks, her knock was loud and vibrant. Peter was packing-

Remus opened the door and there stood Sirius, who’d also changed into cosier clothes, looking almost lost in the depths of his massive jumper. For the first time since Remus had known him, Sirius looked unsure.

“Can I come in?” He asked softly. Remus bit his lip for a moment before nodding and stepping inside. 

Sirius gazed around his room for a moment, snorting at the clothes thrown haphazardly over the chair.

“You didn’t strike me as messy.” He mused.

Remus blushed. “I’m not, I'm just tired.”

Sirius turned around. “I can go?”

“No it’s alright.” Remus had a feeling that if Sirius didn’t say why he came here now, it would be forever forgotten.

Sirius looked at the ground, scuffing his socked toes on the carpet. “Have you ever read about people I date in the tabloids?”

Remus frowned and quickly ran what information about Sirius he knew through his mind. “No? At least, I don’t think so.”

Sirius smiled ruefully. “That’s because I haven’t dated anyone in a long time. Ever really.”

Remus felt his lips part slightly. “Ever?”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I mean a little in school but I don’t know if it really counted.” He kept looking at the floor. “I mean, I have flings or whatever but I don’t date. At first I was too preoccupied with building a life away from my family. Then I was so busy, focusing on my career. Then,” His voice grew soft like he was a little embarrassed, “It had been so long I was afraid. I forget sometimes, when I’m with you. But then that day, I remembered.”

Remus didn’t have to ask what day. _I remembered._ Sirius had said it then too.

"And it was so dumb of me but I was afraid of having you.” Sirius finally looked up at Remus. Grey met amber and all was right. “But then today I worried for a moment that I was going to lose you.”

Remus laughed a little wetly. “You make that sound like I nearly died or something.”

“Shut up I’m trying to be romantic!” Sirius protested, but his cheeks were flushed.

“Sorry.” Remus said, but he was smiling faintly. He reached out and brushed Sirius’ fingers with his and Sirius caught his hand and held it.

“But I realised I’m afraid of being with you, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to it, because I’m _terrified_ of being without you.”

Remus swallowed, wetting his lips. “What… Are you.. Wait?”

Sirius nodded. “Yeah.”

A little smile danced on Remus’ lips as he took a step closer and lowered his face down so he could nudge Sirius’ nose with his own. “I guess we can be a little scared together then.”

Sirius’ eyes lit up and Remus was about to kiss him but before he could move, Sirius had surged up and pressed his lips to Remus’.

Remus _melted_ into it, wrapping one arm around Sirius’ waist, the other removing the hair tie from Sirius’ bun to be tossed somewhere that would probably never be found so he could _finally_ tangle his fingers in the inky black strands like he had dreamed about doing so many times.

Sirius kisses were just like his personality. Confident, purposeful, Remus thought as Sirius nipped his bottom lip and Remus opened his mouth for him. Strong. At some point, Remus backed into the bed, his knees giving out so he sat on the edge while Sirius just straddled him, never even breaking away. The pace was new and thrilling to Remus. A sweet caress of the tongue could lead quickly to a desperate clash of teeth and back again in just a moment. 

"You made lemon meringue." Sirius mumbled against his lips. 

"It's your favourite."

Sirius pulled away first, his chest heaving and his lips red and swollen, shining from Remus; own saliva. That thought alone had Remus chasing his lips for another taste. Sirius smirked but kissed him sweetly for a minute before pulling away and resting his forehead on Remus’ shoulder. Remus could just see those eyes he loved so much peeking up at him from under his ridiculously long eyelashes.

“So you and me?” Sirius asked. “We’re dating? I didn’t make that up, right?”

Remus beamed and shook his head. “You didn’t make it up.”

“Is it too early to ask to be exclusive? I really have no idea how this works.” Sirius laughed, pressing his face into Remus’ chest. Remus bent so he could nip the curve of his ear gently.

“No,” He murmured, “Well I don’t know how it goes that well either. But it doesn’t feel too early, does it?”

Sirius shook his head before lifting it and coming back to Remus’ level again. “You’re mine.” He breathed, eyes sparkling. He pulled Remus’ bottom lip between his teeth and sucked on it gently. “I must be the luckiest person on the planet.”

Remus kissed him softly, pulling him against his chest. “I think that title is reserved for me.”

Sirius hit his shoulder playfully. “Sap.”

“Hey! You started it!”

Sirius giggled and kissed him again, tugging on Remus’ hair a little before pulling away. 

“I want you.” He whispered, “But I’m tired as hell. Wanna, I don’t know, cuddle and shit?”

Remus smirked, patting Sirius’ thigh lightly so they could climb under the covers. 

“Yeah,” He agreed as he pulled Sirius against his chest once more, tangling their legs together. “Let’s cuddle and shit.”

They fell asleep like that, a jumble of limbs tucked under the warm covers, fitting together like they had been made for each other. Remus had one of the best night’s sleep of his life, even missing the sun rising in the morning.

(But somehow, he didn’t mind).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on tumblr at onlydreamofmysoul


	6. Episode 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go guys! Sorry for the minor delay!!!!! Second last chapter!!
> 
> Also! I wanted to add that I haven't been able to respond to all the comments lately because I've been quite busy, but I see them all and appreciate every single one of them. Seeing something new in my inbox really and truly makes my day, so thank you!!

_Tonight on The Great British Bake Off…_

_“Are you talking to yourself?”_

_“Now get out of here you cheeky buggers.”_

_“The person not going to the final is-”_

The morning of the signature and technical challenges, Remus woke up with Sirius in his arms. 

Remus smiled down at Sirius still asleep, his dark eyelashes brushing the tips of those high cheekbones. Ever so carefully, Remus reached to grab his phone and turned off his alarm - it only had two minutes left in it anyways and now Remus could wake Sirius up slowly instead of subjecting him to that heart stopping adrenaline rush that came from having a blaring noise announce the dawn on a new day.

“Sirius,” He whispered, kissing the other man’s forehead. “It’s time to wake up, love.” 

Remus watched, unable to take his eyes away as Sirius’ breathing changed from that deep relaxed state to one more aware of the world. His eyes flickered open and focused immediately on Remus’ own.

“Re?” He mumbled sleepily, moving forward to press his face against the hollow of Remus’ throat and securing his grip around Remus’ waist. “Time is it?” Remus slipped his hands under Sirius’ shirt, relishing the feel of Sirius’ ridiculously warm skin against his hands. “It’s a little past seven, we have to get up, we’re filming today.”

Remus shivered as Sirius’ sigh was warm against his skin, but soon Sirius sat up, stretching high into the air, his joints cracking. Remus laughed and threw a pillow at him as he slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom. 

“I’m just going for a shower, I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Sirius nodded, still yawning. “I should go back to my room anyways, before the world is awake and all that.”

Remus nodded and returned to his side to kiss him goodbye. “See you tonight?” He breathed. Sirius rolled his eyes laughing, “Re, you’ll see me in like, an hour.”

“Yeah,” Remus pouted, “But then everyone will see you. Only I get to see you tonight.”

Sirius smiled, lazily twining his arms around Remus’ neck, leaning against him. “That’s very true, I suppose I’ll see you then too.”

Remus grinned, then pushed his boyfriend away gently. “Go,” He said reluctantly, “Before anyone sees.”

Sirius kissed his cheek, then shoved his feet into his shoes and vanished out the door. Remus wandered to the steaming bathroom in a daze, not quite sure if this was all still just a long, elaborate dream. 

He and Lily wandered down to the tent together, as was tradition at this point.

“I’m not superstitious,” Lily was saying, “But I mean, I’ve gotten this far and if there’s anything I’ve done that’s helped me get here well I’m not going to risk it.” She turned and changed the topic so quickly, Remus was pretty sure he’d get whiplash if he wasn’t so accustomed to her ways. “So how’s Sirius.”

The topic of himself and Sirius was a secret to the world, bar two people - Lily and James. Sirius and Remus had both agreed they wanted a little time to see let their relationship grow a little before being exposed to the public, but there was no denying that both of them needed to tell their best friends. In Remus’ opinion, getting to tell your best friend was one of the very best things about even being in a relationship.

Remus knew the smile on his face was ridiculous and yet he just couldn’t help it. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Lily stuck out her tongue at him. “Very funny. You know what I mean, how are the two of you getting on?”

Remus wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a little squeeze before pulling away. “So fucking good.”

“Well you sure as hell look like a love-struck idiot.”

It was Remus’ turn to stick his tongue out at her, but his cheeks flushed a little. “Oh hush. You’re one to talk, you’re not too far away from being a love struck idiot yourself.”

Sirius and Remus had a bet to see when James and Lily would finally get their shit together and start dating. Remus said before Bake Off ended. Sirius said after. Remus was trying to do everything in his power to make sure it happened before the end of filming the final (The official ‘cut off’ time) because if there’s one thing to know about Remus Lupin, it’s that he liked to win.

(And also that he thought he might be falling in love, but it was far too early to entertain such thoughts).

The tent was cooler today than it had been other weeks and Remus was glad for it. It was always chilly starting off, but the tent quickly warmed up and Remus would take any reprieve from the overwhelming heat that he could get. Tonks was already at her bench and Remus and Lily went to her, chatting before they had to get in their places.

“It’s weird without Peter isn’t it?” Tonks said, glancing at his vacant station. 

“So weird.” The others agreed, all looking over. Can you believe next week is the final?”

“Shh, Lily don’t jinx it.” Remus said, covering her mouth and then ripped it away cringing. “You licked me!” He rubbed his hand on his apron before going to the sink at Lily’s station and washing his hands.

Lily just shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You totally just licked me, ew.” 

Tonks blinked, the picture of a perfect alibi. “Lily is far too civilized to ever lick people Remus, don’t be ridiculous.”

Remus pointed a finger at Lily. “I’ll get you back for this.” He swore, not at all satisfied when she just stuck her tongue out at him. 

“I look forward to it.” She chirped before Marlene called time and everyone went to their own stations. Remus snuck dirty looks at Lily when the camera’s weren’t on him (and once accidentally when they were - Remus could only imagine the ‘Lily and Remus Fight?’ all over bake off twitter). Sirius and James headed to their spot at the front of the tent and suddenly they were off.

“And we’re back! Welcome everyone to The Great British Bake Off!” Sirius started, smiling broadly for the camera. “Things are getting exciting, aren’t they James?”

“Oh yes,” James continued seamlessly, “Things are really heating up, we’ve made it to this season’s semi-final! I almost can’t believe it, it flew by didn’t it?”

Sirius nodded along. Remus had to smile a little at the extra bits of banter they had to slot in now that there were fewer bakers to cover. Sirius’ eyes flitted to Remus, just for a second and then he scanned the rest of the tent, but Remus knew Sirius was really looking for him. “For sure James, for sure. I think no one expected such a good year!”

Lily snuck him a little smirk and Remus rolled his eyes, miming licking his own hand to turn her mind to other things. Tonks was far more perceptive than people gave her credit for and Remus wouldn’t be surprised if she figured out about himself and Sirius just from a couple of well placed looks. 

“Our lovely judges have decided that today marks the start of biscuit week!” James said, motioning to the two judges standing to the side. “Any words of wisdom for our bakers?”

“They should taste good.” Dumbledore said pleasantly, as if it wasn’t the entire point of the competition and Remus had to couch to cover the sound of him snorting. 

“Well thanks for that absolutely useless piece of advice.” Sirius said with a brazen grin. “For our signature challenge, our judges would like you to prepare twenty four short-bread biscuits.”

The camera’s turned to capture the baker’s reactions while James continued. 

“They should be crisp and crumbly, but still able to maintain their shape, with a golden bake, but be careful that they don’t burn.”

The bakers nodded, more than ready to begin, just waiting for the official go-ahead. 

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

“So Remus,” Sirius said as he came up to Remus’ station a little bit in. “What’re you baking for us this week?”

 _‘You'd think you'd remember, considering I've been hand feeding you them all week.'_ Remus wanted to say. But of course instead he just smiled and continued weighing his sugar.

“Lemon and lavender.” He said, offering a sprig of lavender to sniff. “It tastes good, but it also smells so good. It’s a win-win really.”

Remus very pointedly did not look at the way Sirius crushed the flower between his thumb and forefinger before lifting his hand to his face to take a delicate sniff. Remus had to bite down a retort about his etiquette and instead began grating the lemon rind. 

“Well it certainly looks good so far,” Sirius said, so perfectly camera-ready and ready to make some wholesome family entertainment. Remus just smiled at him and returned to his work as Sirius drifted off to chat to some of the others. 

Remus made the biscuits in a bit of a haze to be perfectly honest. He had originally been surprised when he discovered the challenge was shortbreads - he thought they might be a tad simple for something as grand as the semi finals, but he learned pretty quickly that if you looked away for a second, these little bastards would go and burn on you. 

“You look all nice and innocent now,” Remus said to his dough as he folded in the lemon and lavender. “But I know it’s all for show.”

“Remus, sweetheart?” Marlene asked, coming up to his station. 

“Yes?”

“Are you talking to yourself?”

Remus flushed. “No… I’m talking to my dough,”

Marlene nodded bemused. “Because that’s much more normal.”

Remus bit his lip. “Yes?” He said again a lot more hesitantly. Marlene just laughed and began to move on. “You sure are one hell of a man Remus Lupin.”

Remus just chuckled as he started rolling out his dough. 

“What’ve you done now?” Lily asked, half teasing, half curious as she came back from the bathroom. “I leave for five minutes and I miss everything.”

Remus flicked a bit of extra flour at her as he passed by, leaving tiny white flecks speckled like snow in her hair. “Nothing you haven’t heard a hundred times before.”

“Oh were you talking to your cakes again?”

“Yup.”

“I should’ve known.”

Remus sat with his back against Lily’s station as he stared at his oven. 

“Remus?” James said tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“Did you ever hear that expression - ‘a watched pot never boils’?”

Remus just raised an eyebrow, but didn’t look towards James. “Likewise I think you could say; a watched shortbread never burns.”

James laughed as he slid onto the floor next to him. “You know what? That’s fair, I can get on board with this.”

Remus knew several cameras were trained on them but he didn’t look. “Oi, James, I think you’re using talking to me as a chance to sit on your arse.”

James slung an arm over Remus’ shoulder. “Oh Remus, my love, my life, how you wound me.”

“You can stay if you make us tea.” Remus offered and nearly choked on his laughter when James half-flew from his perch to boil the kettle. 

“You drive a hard bargain, but you have yourself a deal Remus.”

Remus smiled and a few minutes later he happily accepted a steaming mug from James as they both just stared into his oven.

“Psst, Remus,” James whispered. Remus gleaned over at him wryly. 

“Yes?”

“Is it supposed to be this boring?”

“Doing practically nothing and getting paid for it? Why yes, yes I believe it is.”

James laughed but didn't say any more for a moment. Remus was suddenly very aware that he was sitting next to one of the very few people who knew about himself and Sirius. He liked James, he liked him a lot and while they got on great, they had never really spent any time just the two of them. And while this wasn’t exactly the two of them hanging out - they were literally working, surrounded by people and being filmed nonetheless, it still felt a little important. Remus wished he could say something, but there was no real way to say _'hey, I'm falling for your best friend, maybe we should get to know each other better’_ and be totally discreet. But James reached over and ruffled his hair once and when Remus shoved him off, laughing, he knew. 

James was thinking that too. 

Remus kept staring at the oven, but on the inside, he was smiling. He and James would be good friends. 

James moved on after a little while, but Remus stayed where he was. At one point, he took the tray out of the oven and covered it loosely with tin foil.

“You cover it lightly, like this, see?” He explained for the camera, “This is a good trick for cakes especially - it’ll keep cooking but it prevents the top from burning. Our oven when I was growing up was a bit dodgy and it loved to burn the tops of my cakes while the inside wouldn’t even be cooked, that’s why I picked this trick up.”

Marlene grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “That might be the longest time I ‘ve filmed you without you cursing.”

“Fuck yes! Wait shit, I mean fuck, I mean, ugh just go.”

Marlene left laughing and Remus popped his tray back in the oven, making sure the tin foil was only covering the top - not secured around it, otherwise the cookies would just sweat inside and go soggy.  
Remus had just taken them out of the oven to start plating them when Sirius called the ten minute mark. 

“Christ this will be interesting.” Remus muttered, again to himself as he started transferring the, still hot, biscuits onto the plate.

“Don’t break, don’t break, don’t break.” He chanted, managing to get ten transferred successfully until the eleventh split in two.

“Oh you fucker.” Remus cursed, rearranging everything so he could hide it under the others. The rest however went well and in the end he had twenty four pretty good looking biscuits, all stacked neatly.

The judges came in, smiling at them. Remus had thought they might become more open when there were fewer of them, but it had seemed the opposite. He figured they must to want to get attached to anyone, let it influence or bias their decision. That was the best call, but Remus was still a little disappointed, he’d looked up to them all his life and he had barely interacted with them ever since he’d arrived. 

“Mr Lupin,” McGonagall greeted as they arrived at his station, “What’ve you got for us today?”

“Lemon and lavender.” Remus said and it only took about seven weeks, but his voice didn’t tremble at all.

Dumbledore took one first, breaking it in half. “It doesn’t have the ‘snap’ we were looking for, but that’s probably just because they’re still a little warm.”

They both took a bite and there was the awkward sound of nothing but their chewing for a moment. “These are excellent.” McGonagall said and Remus thought this was it, he could die happy now. An ‘excellent’ from McGonagall, he was set.

“The flavours are lovely, and you balanced it quite well, I was worried the lavender would be too overpowering.”

Remus laughed, remembering the first time he had tried it, using so much lavender they had tasted more like soap than cookies. “A little goes a long way.” He admitted. 

They both nodded, smiling as they chewed and then they were gone. Remus sighed as he sat down, those challenges were getting simultaneously more and less nerve wrecking. He was growing accustomed to them, which helped, but the stakes were infinitely higher than they had ever been before. 

Remus welcomed the lunch break gratefully, all of them taking the hour to relax. They had all done really well on the challenge. Which was good, Remus supposed, but it meant there really was some tough competition if he wanted to stay. 

They grabbed a spare tablecloth and threw it on the grass, collapsing down on it. Lily lay with her head in Remus’ lap and Remus had to hide his laugh when both James and Sirius looked slightly put out by it. Tonks spent the entire time trying to re-do her hair which had all fallen from the tight braids she had that morning, until Kingsley offered to take over, his fingers quick and nimble, even with Tonks' short hair. 

“Damn Kingsley, a man of many talents.” Sirius said with a low whistle.

“I think,” James began grandly, “I think that we should all just go to sleep.”

“That would make a riveting episode.” Remus agreed, I can see it now, half an hour of footage of us just sleeping.”

Lily snorted. “I mean, we could finally clear up the ‘does Remus snore’ issue. I vote yes.”

“Nah, he doesn’t.” Sirius said, Remus’ eyes snapping to him, heart pounding in his chest as he watched Sirius realise what he said. “That’s what I’d vote for anyway.” He said quickly, rushing to recover. "Look at him, does he look like someone who snores to you?”

Remus laughed, trying to move past the moment. “It’s Lily who snores.”

“I do not!” Lily protested, sitting up. “You know who snores? Tonks.”

Tonks flicked her newly plaited hair. “I shall neither confirm nor deny.”

“Translation,” Sirius added, “She definitely snores.”

“I think everyone snores, they're just all in denial.” Kingsley said, and everyone laughed, continuing eating. 

“Except for me.” James said, breaking their silence and everyone just groaned. Remus lay back, staring up at the sky through the trees. All was good. 

“Welcome back for our technical challenge!” Sirius welcomed as soon as the cameras had begun recording. “For today’s challenge, our judges would like you to make jammie dodgers.”

A burst of surprise lit in Remus’ chest, he had never actually made jammie dodgers, but they were a favourite of his grandmothers, so he used to always have them whenever he would go visit her. 

“The biscuit should be buttery and hard, with a jam filling of your choosing.” James elaborated, clasping his hands together. “Judges? Anything to say?”

“We’d also like to see a shape in the centre of the cookie.” Dumbledore added. “Which is of course, of your own choosing.”

“Okay well thanks for that.” Sirius said, beginning to shoo them out. “Now off you go, you cheeky buggers.”

The entire tent burst out laughing and Remus knew he’d have to mock Sirius for that one later. 

“Alright well, if no one see’s Sirius after today it’s because McGonagall has given him detention.” James quipped. 

“Ready?”

“Set.”

“Bake!”

Remus lifted the white and blue checked cloth to peep at his little pile of ingredients and equipment. 

“I don’t think I’ve had jammie dodgers since I was ten and visiting my gran.” Lily called and Remus chuckled, turning around. 

“That’s literally exactly what I was thinking.”

“Hot take,” Tonks said, throwing a tea towel in their direction to get their attention, the cameras circling them all like vultures. “Only grannies like jammie dodgers, McGonagall set this challenge and hence, she has big grandmother energy.”

“Um, no,” Remus sassed. “If anyone’s the granny of the pair, it’s obviously Dumbledore.”

“Remus is the granny of our group so I think he knows best.” Lily agreed, gesturing wildly at Remus’ cream knit cardigan. Remus just laughed as he rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands. 

“If I’m a granny then I’m those cool ones who teach the kids curse words and give them ice cream even when the parents say no.”

Kingsley looked up from where he was intensely studying his recipe and nodded. “Remus is a cool nan; confirmed.”

Everyone applauded and Remus took a little bow. “Thank you, thank you very much. It's such an honour and as much as I’d love to address it and give you guys an hour long speech, I’m not gonna 'cause we have a fuck ton of work to do.”

“Remus!” Marlene shrieked and he blew her a kiss. All in all, things were going well.

“These biscuits are going to be the death of me.” Remus half sang to himself as he coated his cookie cutter with far more flour than one would ever deem necessary but the dough kept sticking and Remus’ perfect circles were looking a little less than perfect. Or circular. They were more like strange blobs. His actual grandmother would have found them charming. McGonagall on the other hand, well Remus figured she’d think otherwise. 

“Come on you little fucker.” He murmured and finally he managed to cut one out properly. “Oh thank fuck. Okay right let's keep this going.”

His dough seemed to agree that holding it’s shape did indeed seem to be the best course of action and pretty quickly, they were ready to be filled with jam.

“Hey Re, how’s it going over here?” Sirius asked as he came over, leaning his elbows on Remus’ counter. 

“Alright, I’m just about to put the jam in.”

Sirius perked up, peering into the pot waiting on the hob. “Ooh, what kind of jam did you make?”

Remus grabbed a teaspoon and gave it to Sirius. “Try it and see.”

Sirius eyed him, “Just so you know, I’m sure your jam is excellent but I will have no idea what flavour it is.”

Remus laughed, grabbing a spoon himself to start coating the biscuits. “Just give it a go, I think even you will get this one.”

Sirius looked dubious, but did as he was told. Remus didn’t watch the way his boyfriend’s lips closed around the spoon, nope, no sir. He was a perfect professional. 

(But for the record, Sirius had lovely lips). 

Sirius hummed for a minute, taking his time. Taking so long in fact, Remus had assembled four whole biscuits by the time he finally, tentatively mumbled; “Raspberry?”

Remus grinned. “Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!”

Sirius’s face lit up with such excitement, Remus would swear he was like a little puppy. “Really? Is it actually raspberry?”

“Yup.” Remus affirmed, popping the ‘p’ as he placed the top on another cookie. “You’re doing amazing sweetie.”

Sirius grinned and moved on just as Remus finished putting all the pieces together. E had to say, he was pretty happy with how neat the all looked, finally shaped like actual circles with a perfect little hole in the middle. He sprinkled some castor sugar over the tops and popped them in the oven, setting the timer and then he could finally relax for a moment. 

“Does anyone want a cup of tea?” He asked the crew and spent the next few minutes boiling and reboiling the kettle as he took orders and made more cups of tea than Mrs Doyle in ‘Father Ted’. The remainder of all their biscuits from the last challenge were still hanging around, so Remus and the others passed them out too, everyone enjoying a nice tea break in the middle of filming. None of this section would make it into the actual final cut anyways, it never did. No one wanted to spend their night watching a bunch of strangers stare into their ovens. 

The puff of hot air when Remus opened the oven was intense, but it softened and soon the tent smelled warm and welcoming. Remus transferred his biscuits carefully (none of them breaking this time) and put them on the plate just before Sirius called time.

“Alright bakers, please bring your biscuits to the table at the top of the tent.

The table looked strikingly empty with only four pictures on it. In Remus' mind there were still ten of them, but moments like this swiftly brought in back to reality. His place today was the last in the line, furthest away from the judges, just after Kingsley. They all took their seats and then; the judges were brought in. 

“Hello again everyone.” McGonagall greeted. “I hope you all haven’t been cheeky buggers.” She said with a glance towards Sirius. Sirius shot her a wink and Remus hand to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing. 

“Right then,” Dumbledore cut in, “Let’s get started shall we?”

Lily was first and her blueberry jam went down nicely. Tonks' elderberry jam wasn’t quite as well received - she had been a little light on the sugar and it was a tad tart apparently. Not that Remus would know but, he took their word for it. Kingsley’s was ‘unexpected’, a salted vanilla jam that Remus absolutely had to try and finally, it was Remus’ turn to be judged.

“These are a lovely golden colour to start,” McGonagall said as he picked one up, biting into it. And then she smiled. 

Remus nearly stopped breathing, he got a smile from McGonagall.

“These remind me of my youth.” Dumbledore commented, unaware of the absolute chaos that was Remus’ brain in that moment. 

“Me too, I love the raspberry - sometimes it’s nice to stick to the classics.” McGonagall said and then they were finished and talking quietly amongst themselves to rank them. Remus was holding hands with both Tonks and Lily, Lily on his right and Tonks on his left. 

“Okay right, let’s start.” McGonagall said and once again, they were off. 

“I can’t believe you called McGonagall a cheeky bugger.” Remus said as he lay with his head on Sirius’ chest that night, tucked under the quilt all snuggly and warm. 

“I regret nothing.” Sirius hummed, squeezing Remus’ waist. “You know what I _can_ believe? That you won the technical.”

Remus let out an amused huff. “You’re an eejit oh my god.”

“A loveable eejit though.” Sirius countered. Remus rolled his eyes but agreed. “Yeah, a loveable eejit.”

“Half way through this week’s episode.” Remus commented, stating the obvious. Sirius’ chest rumbled gently beneath him when he would speak. 

“Woah, we’re halfway there-”

Remus twisted, resting his chin on his hands so he could peer up at Sirius. “Are you really singing Bon Jovi right now?”

Sirius shrugged, smirking. “Living on a prayer, baby.”

Remus traced Sirius’ bottom lip with his thumb. “I always hated ‘baby’ as a pet name, but you say it and I just…” His words left him so he just pressed forward, kissing Sirius. The arm around his waist coiled tighter and his hair was lovingly pushed back as he pulled away.

“So it’s good?” Sirius asked softly. 

“Yeah sweetheart. Yeah, it’s good.”

“It’s time for our showstopper challenge!” James announced, looking far too peppy for seven o’ clock in the morning. Remus made a little mental note of that - Lily was a morning person too. 

He was still tying his apron when Sirius continued; “For this challenge, our lovely judges have asked you to make any 3D structure or statue of your choosing.”

James picked up right where Sirius left off, the pair in perfect sync. “Your structure can be made of any kind of biscuit, and as many different types as you like, but it must be 3D and unsupported by anything inedible.”

“Basically,” Sirius translated for the audience, “We need to be able to eat it all.”

“On your marks,”

“Get set,”

“Bake!”

Remus cracked his knuckles and set to work, moving quickly. He had managed to perfect his idea in practice, he had even managed to do it all within the time limit, but he was cutting it close. He could do it all, he just had to move fast.

“How’s the house going Lily?”

Lily grinned, looking up from where she was measuring flour. “Well I’m not gonna lie Remus, currently, it’s not looking great.”

Remus laughed and went back to weighing his own ingredients. Lily was making a little replica of her house back at home. Or what she said was a replica. Honestly she could build Buckingham Palace and claimed she lived there and no one would be any wiser. 

Remus was working with a lot of gingerbread today. For no particular reason, aside from the fact that it was easy to work with and good for holding its shape. Gingerbread houses were made of gingerbread for a reason. He also knew however, that everyone else had gingerbread in their structures somewhere, so they were all working to try to find ways to make theirs just that little bit different. 

Remus had just put his first batch in the oven and was melting chocolate on his Bain Marie when Sirius arrived at his side. 

“So Remus, what’ve you got for us today?”

“I’m making my bike.” Remus said, sliding the reference picture he had brought across the table. He saw the camera’s zoom in on it as Sirius looked it over. 

“You ride a bike.” Sirius was saying. “Of course you ride a bike.”

Remus blushed. “It’s a good method of transportation I’ll have you know.”

“Can you drive?”

Remus glanced up from his chocolate at that. “Technically? Yes. Legally? No.”

Sirius laughed and all Remus wanted to do in that moment was lean forward and catch it, taste that laugh on his lips. Instead, he gave the chocolate a bit of a stir. 

“Well I’ll leave you to it.” Sirius said and with that, he was gone. Remus left his chocolate melt as he went to make the biscuit for the wheels. They were going to be matcha an white chocolate and Remus just hoped they tasted okay because none of them were gluten free so he had never tasted them himself. The ‘metal’ part of the bike was gingerbread that would be coated in chocolate. 

He took the gingerbread out of the oven right as he put the matcha in, taking a deep breath of the warm spicy scent. He quickly set them out on the cooling racks, as spaced out as possible because he needed to get them cooled quickly. While he was waiting in everything, he began setting up the plate he could be presenting it on, brushing it all with edible paint to look like grass with a country lane cutting through the middle. He grabbed one of the biscuits he had made just for this purpose and crumbled it up, sprinkling it over the plate to look like dirt. 

After cutting the gingerbread ever so carefully into the shapes he needed, Remus coated them all with chocolate before pulling the matcha cookies out of the oven. He let them cool while he melted white chocolate and dark chocolate separately.

“Wow Lupin, you’ve got a lot going on here.” James said with a low whistle, standing back to watch Remus go back and forth between his several little tasks, stirring and cooling and assembling. 

“Hi James. Can’t really talk - lot’s to do.”

“No worries, we’ll leave you to it. Just a heads up - there’s twenty minutes left.”

“Fuck, okay, thanks.” Remus said, not even glancing up as he went from the white chocolate to the dark. 

He dipped the matcha in the white chocolate, setting those aside to cool as he ‘glued’ the bike together with chocolate, holding them in place as they dried. 

“Fuck, fuck, I need more hands.” Remus glanced up frantically and spotted Sirius just leaving Tonks’ station. “Hey Sirius? Could I borrow you please?”

Sirius nodded and half jogged over. Remus sent him to wash his hands first, and then Sirius took his place holding the bike together while it dried so Remus could work on everything else.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He said, coming so close to kissing Sirius’ cheek before freezing and just moving past him. 

“That’s alright.” Sirius grinned. “I’m here for more than just my good looks you know.”

“Oh really? What reasons would those be? Certainly not your sharp wit anyways.” Remus quipped, tapping Sirius’ hip lightly with his own. 

“Oi! I could just leave you know!” Sirius said in mock outrage and Remus laughed as he filled his piping bag with dark chocolate. 

“No, no, I’m sorry, please stay.” He met Sirius’ eyes and there it was just a second, but it might as well have been forever. 

_It would be easy to fall in love with him_ , Remus thought. 

He blinked and secured the nozzle on the piping bag, pulling the matcha cookies close and piping the spikes and wheels of the bike on, trying to keep his hands steady and lines clean as possible. 

“Okay Re, these are dry.” Sirius said, pulling his hands away to reveal all the pieces holding together on their own. 

“Oh my god, amazing, thank you so much, I hereby set you free.”

Sirius brushed back a stray strand of hair, flashing that iconic Sirius Black smile. “No problem. Okay, this is your five minute warning.”

“Oh Christ, okay thanks go away so I can work please.”

Sirius’ laughter filled the tent but Remus wasn’t even smiling as he focused on setting the finishing touches. He added the wheels and carefully transferred the whole thing onto the plate-

“Bakers! Your time is up!”

Remus let out a sigh of relief as he stepped back, his bike looking pretty good, all assembled and plated. He was just pulling out his stool and sitting down when the judges walked in. 

They loved Remus’. They loved all of them to be perfectly honest. This was the final, and everyone had brought their A-game. Tonks had made the leaning tower of Pisa. Kingsley had made a lovely little bookshelf, complete with little novels. Remus was more than a little jealous of that one, he had to admit. The judges were gone as quickly as they had come and the four contestants moved to sit at the top of the tent as they waited for their return.

“This is it.” Lily murmured. “Here we go.”

For the first time that day, Remus’ stomach was rolling. He wanted this so bad. It wasn’t even about winning - he just wanted to make it to the final. To prove it to little Remus, to his younger self who had dreamed about this. To his future self who could look back at this. 

The judges emerged with Sirius and James, their faces blank and impossible to read.

James spoke first; “Today I have the honour of announcing our star baker.” He looked around at the four of them, pausing for dramatic effect. “Tonight, our star baker is… Kingsley.”

Remus grinned and patted Kinsley’s shoulder in congratulations. He nodded at them and at the judges, a little smile on his face, but his eyes were sparkling. 

“That means I have the horrific job of announcing who’s going home.” Sirius said, his face looking actually drawn. Remus’ chest clenched, was it him? Was his boyfriend about to tell him he hadn’t made it?

“The person who won’t be joining us in this year's final is… Tonks.”

Remus’ heart soared and fell at the same time. He was staying, his friend was not.

He turned and pulled Tonks into a tight hug, her arms slipping around his waist.

“It’s alright,” She was saying, ever the positive presence, “I’m just happy to have made it here in the first place.” She pulled back and kissed Remus on the cheek before hugging Lily, the judges and presenters coming over to join them. Remus could hear McGonagall and Dumbledore talking to her, telling her how close it had been and that she was a truly fantastic baker and Remus smiled to himself. He met Sirius’ eyes and suddenly he wanted all of this to be done with so he could give a hug to the one person he actually wanted. 

He sent Sirius a quick text a little later that he and Lily were going to be with Tonks, helping her pack. He laughed when Sirius responded with “Help her pack, or watch her pack?” Before he set his phone aside and went with Lily to Tonks’ room. 

“Knock knock.” Lily said aloud, pushing the door that had been left slightly ajar, open. “It’s me and Re.”

“Hey guys!” Tonks said, her bright head popping out from the bathroom. “Come on in!”

Tonks was packing her toiletries so Lily and Remus threw themselves on her bed. 

“We brought hot chocolate.” Remus boasted, luring Tonks out to them.

“Of course you did.” She said, sighing fondly. “I would expect no less from the two of you.”

Remus and Lily pulled her onto the bed, sitting her between them. They all sat with their backs against the headboard, legs out in front of them as they sipped their drinks.

“I can’t believe you’re not coming with us to the final.” Lily sighed, resting her head on Tonks' shoulder.

“I know,” Tonks said, sliding her arm around Lily’s shoulder. “But I’ll be watching from home don’t you worry!”

“Any advice?” Remus joked. 

Tonks raised an eyebrow, knocking her foot against Remus’. “I don’t think I'm the best person to get baking advice from, considering I’ve just been sent home, however I do have one or two things to say.”

“Oh?” Lily prompted.

None of them were even looking at each other, just staring straight ahead, but it was nice, peaceful. The window was cracked open ever so slightly, but the room was still warm and snuggly, made all the better by the abundance of hot chocolate. 

“You, Lily Evans, need to get your act together and ask James out.”

“What?” Lily cried at the exact moment Remus enthusiastically nodded his head in agreement.

“Sorry Lily,” He said, leaning forward so he could see her. “But you totally do. The pair of you are mad for each other.”

“Oh you’re one to talk.” She scoffed, then covered her mouth, her eyes wide. Remus waved her off.

“It’s alright, I was going to tell her anyway.” He said to Lily, before turning to look at Tonks. “Sirius and I are dating.”

Tonks nodded. “Oh I know. I was just waiting for you to bring it up.”

Remus blinked a few times. “Wait, what?”

Tonks nodded like it was obvious. “Yeah, since like, the first week, right? It was so obvious, sure you were worse than Lily and James.”

Lily blushed, but Remus flushed harder. “We only started going out last week.” He spluttered, skin burning. That was the first thing that had surprised Tonks all night.

“Wait really? Fuck, why are boys so dumb?”

“Hey!” Remus protested, looking to Lily for help, but his friend just shrugged.

“It’s true.” She said, “They are.”

Tonks turned to look at her in accusation, pointing a long finger at Lily. “Exactly. Boys are dumb. You know this. That’s why you have to be the one to put James Potter out of his misery before you make the rest of us go insane just from watching you.”

Remus just laughed at Lily’s face and pulled Tonks in for a hug. “I’m gonna miss you.” He murmured as he kissed her iconic hair.

“Me too, but you guys can come visit, yeah?”

Remus smiled. “Oh, just try and stop me.”

Remus crept to Sirius’ room carefully, checking the hallway was clear before knocking on the door. Sirius opened it straight away, stepping aside to let Remus in before pulling him in for a kiss as soon as the door was closed. 

“Hi,” Remus said, all breathy and amused. “I missed you.”

“You were with me all day.” Sirius quipped. 

“Ah yes.” Remus agreed, wrapping his arms firmly around the shorter man, “But as you pointed out so astutely, there were other people there today.”

Sirius hummed happily into another kiss. “I do make an excellent point.”

Remus laughed and guided them both to the bed, the pair exhausted after a long day on their feet. 

“Wanna watch a movie?” Remus asked softly as Sirius curled into his side. Sirius nodded and Remus grabbed the TV remote, turning it on with the press of a button. 

“You made it to the final baby.” Sirius whispered, his voice smooth with sleep. Remus smiled, running his thumb soothingly over the skin of Sirius’ waist, just under the elastic of his sweatpants.

“I did. Now sleep love, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night Re.”

Remus smiled and brushed back Sirius’ inky hair as a movie began to play.

“Night darling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped ye liked it!!!!!!!!! I'm having the best time writing it!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos give me life so tell me what you thought!
> 
> Come say hi on tumblr at onlydreamofmysoul


End file.
